Skip to main content

Full text of "The anthropological history of Europe"

See other formats


•,p- 


f(V 


^ 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrbsoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/(5etails/anthropologicalh00bedduoft 


The 

Anthropological   History 

of  Europe 


\ 


Cde  Rbint)  lectutesbip  in  atcfiaeologg. 
The 

Anthropological  History 
of  Europe 

Being  the  Rhind  Lectures  for  1891 


REVISED    TO  DATE 


BY 

JOHN    BEDDOE 

M.D.,    LL.D.,    F.R.S. 

Vice-President  of  the  Anthropological  Institute ; 

Officier  de  V Instruction  Publique  {France)  ; 

Corr.  Memb.  Anthrop.  Soc,  Berlin; 

For.  Assoc.  Anth.  Soc,  Paris; 

Hon.  Memb.  Imp.  Soc.  of  Fr'-  of  Sci.,  Moscow  ; 

Hon.  3Iemb.  Anthr.  Soc*-,  Brussels  and  Washington  ; 

Amer.  Antiq.  Soc,  etc. 


4=^:^^^=^ 


PAISLEY:    ALEXANDER   GARDNER 

pnbttehcr  bg  ^ftp ointment  to  tht  l«t(  Qstm  Victom 
*  1912 


LONDON 
8IHPKIN,    MARSHALL,    HAMILTON,    KENT  &   CO.,    LMD. 


1097369 


PRINTED    BY    ALEXANDER   GARDNER,    PAISLEY 


J 


PREFACE. 


This  new  edition  of  The  Anthropological  History 
of  Europe  seems  to  be  called  for  not  only  by  the 
exhaustion  of  the  earlier  one,  but  by  the  lapse  of 
time  (twenty  years)  since  the  delivery  of  the  Rhind 
Lectures  of  1891,  during  which  period  the  limits 
of  what  may  fairly  be  termed  history  have  been 
pushed  back  in  some  parts  of  Europe  by  hundreds 
or  even  thousands  of  years,  and  the  views  I  origin- 
ally expressed  on  some  parts  of  the  subject  have 
either  been  confirmed  or  rendered  more  problem- 
atical. I  have  endeavoured  therefore  to  bring 
the  volume  up  to  date,  but  have  avoided  entering 
on  the  discussion  of  such  subjects  as  pygmies  and 
steatopygous  men  in  Europe,  of  which  we  as  yet 
know  little,  and  which  must  as  yet  be  excluded 
from  the  domain  of  history. 

J.  B. 

Bradford-on-Avon, 
June,  1911. 


I 


CONTENTS. 


1'A(;k 

First  Lecture. 

The    Aryan    Question    and    that    of 

Variation  of  Type,       ....        9 

History  of  the  Aryan  Question — Latham  and  European  origin — 
Ujfalvy's  discovery  of  the  Galchas — The  Scandinavian  and 
Lithuanian  heresies — The  Variation  Question — Extreme  views 
— Monogenism  and  Polygenism  —  Supposed  modifying  influ- 
ences— Climate  and  environment — Conjugal  selection — Dwind- 
ling of  military  and  governing  castes — EflFectvS  of  food  and  drink. 

Second  Lecture. 

Variation— Primeval  Man— Succession 

OF  Races, 37 

Opinions  of  contemporary  anthropologists — Kollman's  five  per- 
manent European  types — Deniker  on  importance  of  hair  as  a 
character — Schaaffhausen  on  inferiority  of  primitive  man  and 
of  the  longheaded  type — Ancient  types  :  the  Canstatt  :  the 
Cro-magnon  :  the  Eskimo — Neolithic  period  :  brachykephals 
abroad  ;  none  in  Britain — Bronze  periods — Swarming  of  suc- 
cessive races  :  Phoenicians,  Greeks,  Gauls,  Romans,  Teutons, 
Saracens,  Slavs,  Turco-mongols. 

Third  Lecture. 
Russia  and  the  Balkan  Peninsula,       -       64 

Russia — The  Scythians — Spread  of  the  Slavs — Physical  characters 
of  the  Finns — The  Merians — The  Mongol  invasion— Compo- 
sition of  the  modern  Russian  people — The  Lithuanians — Ugrian 
and  Tartar  tribes — The  ancient  occupants  of  the  Balkan  pen- 
insula— The  Hellenes — Modern  descendants  of  the  Thracians 
and  lUyrians. 


8  Contents. 

PAGE 

Fourth  Lecture. 
Scandinavia,  Central  Europe,  France,       90 

Oldest  Scandinavian  Skull-forms — The  Borreby  and  Svelrik  skulls 
— The  Rhoxalani — Modern  Norwegians  and  Danes — The  Ice- 
landers— Ancient  German  Graverow  type — The  four  Swiss 
types  of  His  and  Rutimeyer — Von  Holder's  discoveries  at 
Ratisbon  —  Ranke  on  the  Bavarians — Bohemia — Hallstadt — 
Hungary,  Poland,  Holland  —  Colour  and  stature  in  Central 
Europe — France,  constitution  of  the  Keltic  nation  there — 
Results  of  the  Volkswanderung — Clear  demarcation  of  types  in 
Belgium,  less  clear  in  France — Investigations  of  Topinard  and 
Collignon. 

Fifth  Lecture. 
Spain,  Italy,  and  the  British  Isles,      -     124 

Spain  and  Portugal — De  A.ranzadi  on  the  Basques — Italy :  The 
Ancient  and  Modern  Romans — The  Sards,  purest  race  in 
Western  Europe — The  Jews ;  their  original  and  secondary  types 
— The  Gypsies — Brief  sketch  of  the  Races  of  Britain :  Specimen 
districts — Pembrokeshire — The  Isle  of  Man. 

Sixth  Lecture. 
Scotland,  with  General  Conclusions,      147 

Considerations  of  special  districts,  such  as  Berwickshire,  an 
Anglian,  and  Ballachulish,  a  Gaelic  locality  —  Difficult  and 
doubtful  points  in  British  ethnology — Possible  effects  of  urban 
life — Growth  and  decline  of  races  and  types,  and  their  probable 
future. 

Appendix— Description  of  Illustrations,  190 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

Curves  of  Kephalic  Index  (from  Retzius  and  Furst),  -  facing  88 
European  Skull  Types — Vertical  Aspect,  -  -  -  ,,  102 
Curves  of  Stature  in  French  Conscripts,         -         -         -       ,,122 

Living  (Kephalic)  Index, ,,     166 

Diagram  of  SkuUbreadth  in  Pure  and  in  Mixed  Races,       ,,     178 


LECTURE    I. 


THE  ARYAN   QUESTION  AND  THAT  OF 
VARIATION  OF   TYPE. 

History  of  the  Aryan  Question — Latham  and  European  origin — 
Ujfalvy's  discovery  of  the  Galchas — The  Scandinavian  and 
Lithuanian  heresies — The  Variation  Question — Extreme  views 
— Monogenism  and  Polygenism  —  Supposed  modifying  influ- 
ences— Climate  and  environment — Conjugal  selection — Dwind- 
ling of  military  and  governing  castes — Effects  of  food  and  drink. 

IN  accordance  with  the  will  of  my  valued  and 
lamented  friend  the  founder  of  the  Rhind 
Lectureship,  I  am  taking  for  my  subject  the  anthro- 
pology of  ancient  Europe  and  its  connection  with 
that  of  modern  Europe,  and  especially  of  our  own 
country ;  including  the  descent  and  connections  or 
relations  of  physical  types.  If  from  these  we  can 
deduce  anything  as  to  the  laws  which  govern  the 
changes  that  have  taken  place  in  these  types,  or  as 
to  the  causes  of  their  development,  so  much  the 
better.  I  scarcely  hope  to  do  that ;  but  I  may  per- 
haps be  able  at  least  to  place  some  of  the  problems 
of  anthropology  before  you. 

Now,  these  are  of  course  many;  but  there  are  two 
which  above  all  others  are  at  present  constant  sub- 
jects of  debate;  and  one  of  them  is  what  may  be 
shortly  denoted  as  the  Aryan  Question,  while  the 

2 


10      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

other  is  the  question  of  the  degree  of  permanence 
of  types,  of  the  stability  or  permanence  of  form 
and  colour,  of  the  influence  upon  physical  character 
of  media,  of  surroundings  and  external  agencies, 
whether  directly  or  by  way  of  natural  selection. 

The  Aryan  question  was  originally  a  philological 
one  :  it  was  philological  discovery  that  gave  it  birth 
— the  discovery  of  Sanskrit  and  Zend,  and  of  their 
relation  to  the  principal  European  languages — and 
while  everybody  devoutly  believed  in  the  powerful 
and  rapid  influence  of  media,  and  was  not  particu- 
larly curious  as  to  the  mode  of  working  of  these 
media,  while  everybody  thought  that  negroes  were 
black  because  the  sun  had  burned  them  so,  and 
nobody  troubled  his  own  head  about  the  form  of 
the  heads  of  other  folk,  there  was  no  difficulty  in 
believing  that  all  people  who  spoke  Aryan  (or  Indo- 
German)  languages  were  of  one  blood. 

Then  came  the  knowledge  of  the  Indian  and 
Persian  sacred  books,  of  how  the  Veda  introduced 
the  white-complexioned  friends  of  Indra  from  the 
north-west,  and  how  the  Vendidad  brought  the 
noble  Aryan  from  a  cold  country,  where  there  were 
only  two  months  of  summer,  and  which  apparently 
lay  closer  to  Sogdiana  and  Bactria,  to  the  Jaxartes 
and  the  Oxus,  than  to  any  other  part  of  ancient 
Iran.  And  so  it  was  that  the  Roof  of  the  World, 
the  tableland  of  Pamir,  and  the  valleys  that  seamed 
its  skirts,  came  to  be  looked  on  as  the  cradle  of  the 
Aryan  race. 

I  believe  it  was  my  old  friend.  Dr.  Robert  Gordon 
Latham,  who  was  the  first  to  rebel  against  this  doc- 


The  Aryan  Question — Variation  of  Type.     11 

trine.  He  was  the  father  of  many  paradoxes,  most 
of  which  perished  still-born  or  in  their  cradles ;  but 
this  one,  though  ill  received  at  first  in  the  land  of 
its  birth,  throve  wonderfully  in  Germany,  where 
philologists  found  arguments  in  its  favour  more 
cogent  perhaps  than  those  of  its  parent,  whose  chief 
point  indeed  was  the  simple  one  that,  whereas  there 
were  far  more  Aryan -speaking  men  in  Europe  than 
in  Asia,  the  onus  probandi  lay  on  those  who  would 
derive  the  greater  from  the  less,  rather  than  the  less 
from  the  greater.  The  same  kind  of  argument 
might  have  been  used  to  derive  the  Jews  from 
Poland,  or  the  British  people  from  the  United 
States,  or  rather  from  North  America,  or  the  Por- 
tuguese from  Brazil. 

Other  and  important  elements  and  considera- 
tions have  since  been  introduced  into  the  question, 
or  recognized  as  bearing  upon  it.  Many  of  these 
are  philological :  much,  as  you  are  aware,  is  deduced 
from  study  of  the  words  which  are  common  to  all 
or  most  of  the  Indo-German  languages,  and  may 
therefore  be  supposed  to  have  belonged  to  the 
original  Aryan  tongue.  On  this  part  of  the  subject 
I  am  quite  incompetent  to  enlarge ;  but  I  would 
like  to  take  the  opportunity  of  expressing  some 
doubt  whether  sufficient  notice  is  taken  of  the  easy 
transference  of  meaning,  in  the  words  which  are 
used  for  the  purpose  of  this  line  of  argument,  which 
may  considerably  affect  their  value.  Thus  the 
Latin  aes,  brass,  appears  to  be  identical  with  the 
German  eisen,  iron.  Geiger  drew  attention  to  this 
ease  of    transference ;    but,  however  well  known. 


12      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

it  seems  sometimes  to  be  forgotten  or  under- 
estimated. 

The  investigation,  by  a  distinguished  Hungarian 
traveller,  of  the  Galchas,  the  race  who  inhabit  Kar- 
ategin,  Durwaz,  Shignan,  Wakhan,  the  elevated 
valleys  of  the  Oxus  and  the  Zerafshan,  which 
constitute  precisely  the  cradle  of  the  Aryan  race, 
according  to  those  who  cling  to  the  earlier  theory, 
has  also  given  some  of  us  new  lights  on  the  subject. 
For  whereas  we  northern  Europeans  have  most  of 
us  long-oval  or  oblong  heads,  and  the  same  is  the 
case  with  high-caste  Hindus,  who,  by  the  original 
hypothesis,  were  our  near  kinsfolk ;  we  were  accus- 
tomed to  assume,  that  we  were  the  genuine  descen- 
dants of  the  potentially  gifted  Aryan;  while  the 
anthropologists  of  the  central  latitudes  of  Europe,  in- 
cluding the  great  Broca  himself,  having  heads  whose 
breadth  was  greater  than  four-fifths  of  their  length, 
sat  contentedly  under  the  imputation  of  belonging 
to  an  inferior  race,  which,  among  other  benefits,  had 
received  from  us  at  least  the  rudiments  of  their  ad- 
mirable languages.  For  had  not  Broca  himself  shewn, 
pretty  conclusively, that  head-form  was  a  vastly  more 
permanent  characteristic  of  race  than  language } 

Wood,  and  I  believe  Burnes,  and  perhaps  one  or 
two  Russian  travellers,  had  indeed  penetrated  the 
inmost  recesses  of  Pamir,  but  Ujfalvy  was  the  first 
to  submit  a  competent  number  of  the  Galchas  to 
scientific  investigation.  And  in  his  hands  they 
turned  out  to  be  a  sturdy,  thick-set,  short-headed 
population,  dark-haired  on  the  whole  and  hazel- 
eyed,  though   including    a    certain    proportion    of^ 


The  Aryan  Question — Variation  of  Type.     13 

blonds,  and  on  the  whole  yielding,  to  the  callipers 
and  measuring  tape,  figures  not  unlike  what  may 
be  gotten  in  Auvergne,  or  in  the  Alpine  valleys  of 
Savoy  or  Piedmont. 

Now  these  Galchas,  with  their  neighbours  the 
Badakshani  (lying  south  of  them  between  the  Oxus 
and  the  Hindu  Kush,  and  reported  to  resemble 
them),  have  apparently  the  best  title  to  represent 
our  Aryan  ancestors,  if  those  ancestors  are  really  to 
be  sought  in  Asia.  It  would  be  natural  for  the  sur- 
plus population  of  these  valleys  to  overflow  into 
Sogdiana  and  Bactria,  as  it  is  represented  in  the 
Vendidad  to  have  done. 

It  is  true,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  tribes 
which  occupy  the  secluded  valleys  south  of  the 
crest  of  the  Hindu  Kush  seem  to  differ  physically 
from  the  Galchas.  But  not  only  the  geographical 
position  of  these  tribes,  the  Kafirs  or  Siah-Posh 
Kafirs,  the  Chitralis  (who  seem  to  be  Islamized 
Kafirs),  the  people  of  Hunza-Nagar,  the  Dards, 
whom  we  know  to  have  occupied,  by  the  unmis- 
takable name  of  Daradrae,  the  same  position  since 
the  dawn  of  geography ;  not  only  their  position,  but 
whatever  we  know  of  them,  seems  to  indicate  that 
they  bear  the  same  relation  to  the  Hindus  that  the 
Galchas  bear  to  the  Persians;  that  if  the  Galchas  are 
the  rearguard  of  the  old  Persian  migration,  these 
Kafirs  and  Dards  are  the  rearguard  of  the  Aryo- 
Hindu  migration. 

Our  information  regarding  the  physical  charac- 
ters of  these  southern  tribes  is  not  so  comprehensive 
as  might  be  wished,  but  here  also  Ujfalvy  has  helped 


14      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

us ;  and  it  is  satisfactory  that  they  have  been  exam- 
ined by  the  very  man  who  knows  most  about  their 
analogues,  the  Galchas.  Ujfalvy  confirms  what 
little  other  information  we  have  about  their  crania. 
They  are  generally  long-headed,  the  average  cranial 
index  or  proportion  of  breadth  to  length  being 
about  75,  or  nearly  identical  with  the  average  in  our 
own  country.  It  may  be  worth  mentioning,  how- 
ever, that  the  one  Siah-Posh  Kafir  who  has  ever 
visited  England,  and  whom  through  the  courtesy  of 
Professor  Leitner  I  had  the  opportunity  of  examin- 
ing, was  an  exception  to  the  rule;  he  had  a  short, 
square  head,  and  altogether  more  resembled  the 
Galchas,  as  they  are  described. 

There  are  evidently  great  varieties  of  complexion 
among  these  people.  Bellew  says  some  Kafirs  are 
very  dark  and  others  very  fair.  Sir  C.  Robertson 
says  most  Kafirs  are  about  the  same  complexion  as 
Punjabis.  Ujfalvy  met  with  some  blonds;  and  so 
did  Leitner  in  Dardistan,  and  Hayward  also :  but 
the  first  named  observer  finally  concluded  that  the 
cradle  of  the  blonds,  the  fountain-head  of  the  fair 
races,  is  not  to  be  found  either  north  or  south  of  the 
Hindu  Kush. 

Obviously,  with  facts  like  these  among  the  bases 
of  argument,  a  great  number  of  views  about  Aryan 
origins  are  possible,  even  after  excluding  any  which 
might  start  with  a  denial  of  there  having  ever  been 
a  time  when  the  speakers  of  the  primitive  Aryan 
language  "dwelt  together  under  one  roof,"  or  at 
least  in  the  same  horde. 

Thus,  firstly,  the  starting-point  may  have  been 


The  Aryan  Question — Variation  of  Type.     15 

in  the  land  of  the  Galchas ;  the  first  offswarm  may 
have  been  that  of  the  ancestors  of  the  European 
nations,  the  second  that  of  the  ancestors  of  the 
high-caste  Hindus,  the  residue  being  the  parents  of 
the  Persians  and  their  kindred  tribes,  the  Kurds, 
Afghans,  Ossetes  of  the  Caucasus,  etc.  This  may 
be  said  to  be  the  orthodox  view,  of  which  Professor 
MiJller  was  the  great  champion,  but  it  has  long  been 
losing  ground.  Those  who  still  adhere  to  it  must 
entertain  strong  opinions  as  to  the  easy  mutability 
of  language,  the  readiness  of  one  tribe  or  nation  to 
accept  and  acquire  the  language  of  another;  or  they 
must  believe  in  the  powerful  and  rapid  action  of 
media,  of  external  agencies,  upon  national  physique; 
or,  still  better,  they  must  combine  both  these  ways 
of  thinking. 

A  sub-variety  of  this  first  species,  held  by  some 
who  have  formed  a  low  estimate  of  the  power  of 
external  agencies,  and  particularly  by  some  French 
anthropologists,  is  this — that  the  brachycephalic  or 
broad-headed  folk  of  Central  Europe,  that  is,  of  the 
central  zone  in  latitude,  which  includes  most  of  the 
great  mountain -chains — the  Cevennes,  the  Alps,  the 
Black  Forest,  the  Vosges,  the  Carpathians  and 
Pindus,  with  the  regions  adjacent — that  all  these 
are  descended  from  Asiatic  ancestors  of  a  common 
stock  with  the  Galchas,  that  they  brought  the 
Aryan  language  into  Europe,  and  communicated  it 
to  the  northern  and  southern  Europeans.  This 
opinion  is  based  upon  the  resemblance  between  the 
Galchas  and  the  Auvergnats,  for  example,  which 
certainly  does  appear  very  close. 


16      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

Next  comes  the  great  modern  heresy,  already 
mentioned,  which  derives  the  Aryan  languages  of 
Asia  in  their  two  great  branches,  the  Iranian  and 
the  Indian,  from  Europe.  It  has  gained  ground  very 
much  of  late  years,  and  may  now  perhaps  be  said  to 
hold  the  field.  Few,  however,  of  those  who  hold  it 
make  any  endeavour  to  account  for  the  colonization 
of  Asia,  the  difficulty  of  doing  which  is  very  great. 
There  are  two  principal  sub-varieties  of  this  theory, 
one  of  which  supposes  the  primitive  Aryan  language 
to  have  originated  somewhere  in  that  central  region 
of  Europe  which  I  have  just  now  been  defining, 
while  the  other  assigns  the  credit  of  having  given 
it  birth  to  the  northern  zone,  and  to  the  blond, 
dolichocephalic  (long-headed)  family,  of  which  the 
Scandinavians  furnish  the  best  types.  The  argu- 
ments in  favour  of  these  two  varieties  of  opinion 
may  be  found  respectively  in  two  books  of  small 
dimensions,  and  in  our  own  language  —  that  of 
Canon  Isaac  Taylor,  who  champions  the  Central 
or  Alpine  brachycephals,  and  that  of  Professor 
Rendell,  who  takes  up  the  cause  of  our  own  north- 
ern long-heads. 

There  are  anthropologists  in  Germany,  however 
— as  Poesche  and  Fligier,  for  example-r-who  would 
trace  the  patriarchal  Aryan  to  his  lair  in  the  marshes 
of  Lithuania,  rather  than  to  the  valleys  of  the  Alps 
or  the  forests  of  Sweden.  The  alleged  nearer  rela- 
tion of  Sanskrit  to  Lithuanic  than  to  any  other 
European  language,  furnishes  them  with  one  argu- 
ment ;  another,  which  may  or  may  not  be  relevant, 
is  that  Lithuania  has  some  title  to  be  considered  the 


r 


The  Aryan  Question  —  Variation  of  Type.     Y7 

cradle  of  the  blonds — of  this,  more  hereafter ;  a  third 
is,  or  might  be,  the  geographical  position  of  the 
country,  which,  before  the  Slavonic  Russians  pushed 
north-eastwards  across  the  Dnieper,  may  have  had 
an  uninterrupted  plain,  totally  unoccupied  so  far  as 
Aryan-speaking  men  were  concerned,  extending  all 
the  way  from  their  frontier  to  that  of  the  Galchas 
or  their  kindred  in  Turkestan. 

In  the  next  place  we  must  consider  briefly  the 
great  question  of  transformation  or  of  variability 
of  type.  Time  was  when  no  one  had  any  doubt 
about  the  powerful  influence  of  external  agencies, 
nor  any  about  their  operating  in  the  most  direct 
way.  They  saw,  as  we  see,  that  they  do  affect  the 
individual  both  physically  and  morally,  that  the 
sun  tans  or  freckles  the  complexion  of  a  blond, 
developing  pigment  either  over  the  whole  exposed 
surface  or  merely  in  spots,  and  that  it  darkens  or 
yellows  the  skin  of  a  brunette.  They  saw,  or 
thought  they  saw,  that  the  vigorous,  energetic 
European  grew  languid  and  indolent  in  the  tropics; 
nay,  moreover,  that  his  children  born  there  did  not 
grow  up  equal  to  their  father  in  energy  and  spirit. 
So  long  ago  as  the  period  of  the  Crusades,  the 
Syrian  Creoles,  the  Syrian-born  children  of  the 
Frank  soldiers,  were  complimented  with  the  name 
of  Pulleins  (Pullani),  because  they  were  supposed  to 
be  chicken-hearted.  The  Castilian  said  the  grass 
of  Valencia  was  water,  and  its  men  were  women, 
blaming  the  climate  in  both  cases.  The  Negro, 
then,  was  black  because  the  sun  had  burnt  him,  and 
his  father  before  him :  the  Red  Indian  was  red,  or 


18      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

rather  brown,  because  for  generations  his  ancestors 
had  been  exposed  to  sun  and  wind  without,  and  to 
dirt  and  smoke  within,  their  wigwams.  Thomas 
Price,  one  of  the  first  men  to  observe  and  note 
differences  of  physical  character  in  our  own  islands, 
ascribed  the  dark  hue  of  the  iris,  which  he  found 
to  prevail  in  some  districts,  to  the  use  of  coal- 
fires  ;  while  others,  with  more  apparent  probability, 
ascribed  the  prognathous  features  of  certain  of  the 
Irish  peasantry,  either  to  the  influence  of  misery 
and  starvation,  or  to  the  continual  exercise  of  the 
jaws  upon  large  quantities  of  half-boiled  potatoes 
"  with  the  bones  in  them."  You  will  recollect  that 
eloquent  description  of  them,  often  quoted  for 
political  purposes — "Five  feet  two  inches  on  an 
average,  pot-bellied,  abortively  featured,  these 
spectres  of  a  people  that  once  were  able-bodied 
and  comely,"  etc.,  etc.  Montesquieu  in  France,  and 
Falconer,  and,  more  recently.  Buckle,  have  pro- 
bably been  the  best  expositors  of  this  view  of  the 
subject.  Some  of  their  ideas  as  to  the  influence  of 
external  agencies  on  the  individual  were  deserving 
of  respect  and  consideration ;  but  as  a  rule  they 
quite  ignored  the  great  principles  of  heredity. 

New  lights  began  to  play  upon  the  subject  from 
the  speculations  of  Oken  and  Lamarck  and  our  own 
Robert  Chambers ;  until  finally  the  full  blaze  of 
the  great  idea  of  variation  of  type  through  natural 
selection  was  turned  upon  it  by  Darwin  and 
Wallace.  Its  development  checked  a  current  of 
thought  which  had  meanwhile  been  in  process  of 
growth  among  the  anthropologists,  more  especially 


The  Aryan  Question  —  Variation  of  Type.     19 

those  of  France,  who  a  generation  ago  were  the 
undisputed  leaders  in  their  own  science.  The  old 
idea,  derived  from  the  usual  interpretation  of  the 
Old  Testament,  had  been  that  all  mankind  were 
undoubtedly  descended  from  a  single  pair,  and 
must  therefore  have  been  capable  of  rapid  or  even 
sudden  variations  of  type,  in  order  to  the  produc- 
tion of  the  numerous  and  widely  different  varieties 
which  we  now  see  scattered  over  the  world.  The 
gradual  admission  of  the  claims  of  geology  within 
the  circle  of  orthodox  opinion,  only  lessened  the 
difficulties  of  this  view,  by  greatly  and  indefinitely 
extending  the  period  available  for  these  variations. 
But  now  began  a  reaction.  The  jjiench  Egypt^- 
logists^proclaimed  _that_jiumerous  types  of  man 
were  to  be  found  portrayed  in  the  ancieiTt^walt- 
paintings,  identical  with  those  at  present  existing, 
and  quite  as  sharply  discriminated  ;  and  they  began 
to  ask  why — if_5000~y€ar&  had  done  nothjng  to  bjing^^ 
about  physical_£hangesjn  man — why  shouldj5Q^00_ 
years  be  supposed  to  have  done  so  much  ?  Nott  and 
Gliddon  in  America,  in  the  Southern  States  of  the 
American  Union,  animated  obviously  and  naturally 
by  political  feeling,  urged  this  question  in  reference 
to  the  supposed  eternal  gulf  that  divided  the  white 
man  from  the  black;  and  their  arguments  were 
relied  on  by  Southern  politicians.  Boudin  and 
Broca,  in  France,  took  up  the  subject  of  hereditary 
stature.  There  is  perhaps  no  physical  character 
which  might,  a  priori,  be  expected  to  vary  more 
easily  under  the  operations  of  different  conditions 
of    life,    and    more    especially    of    differences    in 


20      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

the  nature  and  relative  abundance  of  nutriment. 
Boudin,  however,  maintained  that  where  large 
masses  of  population  were  considered,  the  scarcity 
or  abundance  of  food  could  not  be  shown  to  have 
any  influence;  and  Broca  shewed  that  in  France 
stature  was  an  attribute  of  race,  that  tall  stature 
coincided  in  locality  with  a  fair  complexion,  a  long 
head,  a  certain  form  of  nose,  and  a  tendency  to 
suffer  from  decayed  teeth  and  certain  other  in- 
firmities. 

Some  of  those  anthropologists  who  built  upon 
Broca's  facts  carried  out  their  deductions  into  the 
region  of  paradox.  Blumenbach  and  his  successors 
had  acknowledged  three,  or  at  most  five,  great 
varieties  of  the  human  species :  there  was  Homo 
Sapiens  albus  europaeus,  the  white  man  of  Europe 
and  Western  Asia ;  Homo  Sapiens  flavus  asiaticus, 
the  yellow  or  Mongolian  man  ;  Homo  Sapiens  niger 
africanus,  the  negro,  then  in  process  of  detection 
elsewhere  than  in  Africa ;  to  these  others  added 
Homo  Sapiens  ruber  americanus,  the  Red  Indian, 
whom  Blumenbach  had  made  a  sub-variety  of  the 
Mongolian  ;  and  the  Malay,  also  nearer  to  the  Mon- 
golian than  to  either  of  the  other  two  original 
varieties,  was  by  some  added  as  a  fifth.  Next  the 
Hottentot  and  the  Austral  Negro  put  in  their 
claims  for  separation.  Then  Huxley  divided  the 
dark  whites  from  the  blond  whites,  i.e.,  for  example, 
the  Spaniards  and  Berbers  from  the  Swedes.  And 
the  last  and  best  classification  that  I  have  seen,  that 
of  Deniker  of  Paris,  admits  thirteen  divisions,  one 
of  which  is  entirely  constituted  by  the  Aino,  the 


The  Aryan  Question — Variation  of  Type.     21 

hairy  men  of  Yesso  and  Saghalien,  some  of  whose 
blood  enters  into  the  composition  of  the  Japanese. 

Deniker  of  course  does  not  claim  a  separate 
origin  for  all  his  thirteen  varieties  of  man ;  he 
simply  means  that  they  are  all  well-defined,  recog- 
nizable, and  practically  permanent  in  the  absence  of 
crossing.  Few,  if  any,  now  contend  for  the  separate 
origin  of  more  than  two,  or  three  at  the  most.  But 
it  was  otherwise  not  so  long  ago.  In  evidence 
let  me  cite  a  particular  case.  At  the  foot  of  the 
Himalayas  extends  a  long  narrow  belt  of  intensely 
malarious  forest  called  the  Terai.  So  pestilential 
is  the  Terai  that  it  used  to  be  said  it  was  death  for 
a  European  to  sleep  within  its  limits,  or  to  traverse 
them  by  night ;  and  it  was  almost  equally  deadly 
to  even  the  neighbouring  tribes.  But  there  is  a 
race  of  people  called  the  Bodo,  who  inhabit  this 
otherwise  deserted  swamp,  and  defy  its  deadly 
malaria  with  impunity.  They  were  first  described, 
I  believe,  by  Mr.  Bryan  Hodgson,  who  wrote  a 
valuable  work  on  them,  and  on  some  other  sub- 
Himalayan  tribes.  Their  civilization  of  course  is 
low,  but  their  Mongoloid  heads  and  features  pre- 
sent scarcely  any  peculiarities,  when  compared  with 
those  of  the  Lepchas  or  other  hill-tribes  of  the 
Himalaya;  the  physiognomy  may  differ  a  little, 
but  nothing  comes  out  in  the  measurements.  Now 
Barnard  Davis,  the  "  doyen "  of  British  anthropo- 
logists in  his  day,  was  well-acquainted  with  the 
Bodo,  so  far  as  he  could  be  without  personally 
interviewing  them.  And  his  opinion  was  that  the 
Bodo  were  an  entirely  distinct  variety  of  man,  who 


22      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

derived  their  singular  immunity  from  fever  from 
their  having  been  created  or  developed  in  situ. 

Since  that  time  opinions  have  grown  to  be  a 
little  less  extreme;  the  polygenists,  the  advocates 
of  plurality  of  origin,  have  ceased,  as  I  said  just 
now,  to  require  more  than  two  or  three  starting- 
points  for  our  species,  and  have  begun  to  attach 
more  or  less  importance  to  the  various  possible 
modifying  agencies;  while  the  monogenists  are 
more  ready  to  acknowledge  the  feebleness  of  the 
direct  action  of  climate,  food,  etc.,  and  the  slowness 
of  the  changes  produced  in  other  ways.  Before 
these  parties  can  come  to  anything  like  an  agree- 
ment, it  will  be  necessary  for  the  biologist  to  settle 
a  great  question  which  lies  behind  or  at  the  bottom 
of  all  these  disputes — that  of  the  descent  by  inheri- 
tance of  acquired  characters. 

I  will  now  proceed  to  enumerate  a  few  of  the 
supposed  modifying  influences : — 

First  comes  the  direct  influence  of  climate,  of 

sunshine,  temperature,  moisture,  malaria.^    Of  this 

^/    we  now  hear  comparatively  little,  though  there  is 

more  evidence  of  the  deteriorative  effect  of  malaria 

\     on  physical  type  than  is  generally  known. 

Secondly,  the  doubtlessly  powerful  influence  of 
natural  selection,  of  which  new  modes  of  work- 
ing are  continually  being  found  out  or  suspected. 
Hereunder,  for  example,  comes  the  most  plausible 


^  With  the  progress  of  microscopic  pathology,  the  domain  of  true 
malaria  is  constantly  being  circumscribed,  and  may  perhaps  be  ulti- 
mately annihilated.     But  I  use  the  terra  for  the  sake  of  convenience. 


The  Aryan  Question  —  Variation  of  Type.     23 

theory  ever  yet  brought  forward  to  account  for  the 
origin  of  the  blond  complexion,  that  of  Mr.  Buchan 
of  Toronto,  who,  choosing  Southern  Scandinavia 
as  its  most  probable  birthplace,  shows  how  a  fine 
transparent  skin  might  give  its  owner  a  slight 
advantage  in  a  somewhat  cool  and  damp  climate 
which  it  would  not  have  elsewhere,  and  which 
indeed  might  be  positively  detrimental  in  a  hot 
country,  especially  where  the  air  is  also  dry. 
Looking  at  this  theory  with  historical  side-lights 
and  qualifications,  and  taking  note  of  the  slow- 
ness with  which  so  slight  an  advantage  might  be 
expected  to  make  itself  felt,  there  seems  very  little 
to  object  to  it,  except  the  description  given  by 
the  Chinese  annalists  of  the  Woo-Sun,  and  other 
green-eyed,  red-haired  tribes  who  once  inhabited 
Central  Asia.  And  this  objection  may  be  some- 
what weakened  if  we  accept  the  opinions  of  many 
geologists  as  to  the  recent  existence  of  a  great 
West- Asiatic  Sea,  of  which  the  Euxine,  the  Caspian 
and  the  Aral  are  the  dwindling  remains,  and  which 
would  have  caused  the  climate  of  that  region  to  be 
much  damper  than  it  now  is. 

Malaria  evidently  works  much  by  natural  selec- 
tion. In  New  Orleans,  for  example,  the  fair  races  of 
Northern  Europe,  including  our  own,  are  said  to 
suffer  most  from  yellow  fever,  and  the  negroes 
least;  while  the  dark  races  of  Southern  Europe, 
Huxley's  Melanochroi,  occupy  an  intermediate  posi- 
tion, the  French  moreover  standing  worse  than  the 
more  southern  Spaniards,  Portuguese  and  Italians. 
It  would   probably  be  impossible  for  the  Anglo- 


C 


/') 


24      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

American  permanently  to  hold  his  ground  in  New 
Orleans,  without  the  presence  of  the  other  races 
whom  he  utilises;  and  if  he  does  succeed  in  doing 
so,  it  is  likely  that  the  blonds  may  in  course  of  time 
almost  entirely  disappear  from  his  ranks.  Their 
only  hope  seems  to  lie  in  the  total  abolition  of  so- 
called  malarial  fevers,  but  experience  at  Havana 
seems  to  indicate  that  this  is  not  impossible. 

It  is  my  opinion,  though  I  cannot  prove  it,  that 
a  process  of  selection,  which  may  perhaps  be  called 
natural,  works  against  the  perpetuation  of  certain 
types  in  our  cities.  Tall,  rapidly-developing  chil- 
dren, and  especially  those  of  fair  complexion,  have 
seemed  to  me  less  able  to  thrive  without  fresh  air 
and  abundant  food  than  others.  And  tall  striplings 
are  more  apt  to  suffer  from  consumption  than  short, 
stocky,  slowly-developing  young  men.  Since  this 
was  written.  Dr.  Shrubsall  has  collected  much  evi- 
dence on  this  subject,  shewing,  for  example,  that 
the  blonds  are  more  apt  to  be  cut  off  by  scarletina 
and  acute  rheumatism.  These  may  be  among  the 
causes  of  the  lower  stature  of  our  town  artisans  and 
labourers,  as  compared  with  the  professional  and 
well-to-do  classes.  This  difference,  as  you  are 
probably  aware,  is  pretty  considerable.  Roberts 
aud  Rawson,  summing  up  the  wide  field  of  induc- 
tion yielded  by  the  schedules  of  the  British  Asso- 
ciation Committee,  found  it  to  amount  to  quite  two 
inches;  and  I  myself  found  nearly  that  difference 
between  the  average  stature  of  an  upper-class  com- 
pany and  of  some  artisan  companies  in  the  Bristol 
Volunteer  Rifle  Corps. 


The  Aryan  Question  —  Variation  of  Type.     25 

Sir  James  Simpson  pointed  out,  a  good  many 
years  ago,  that  nature  had  placed  a  barrier  in  the 
way  of  the  too  great  development  of  the  human 
brain,  so  that  infants  with  very  large  heads  usually 
perished  at  their  entry  into  the  world.  And  I  am  v/ 
pretty  certain  that  in  this  matter  nature  favours  the 
dolichocephals,  the  long-headed,  rather  than  the 
broad -headed  type.  This  conclusion  I  arrived  at 
many  years  ago,  at  a  time  when  the  great  Maternity 
Hospital  of  Vienna  afforded  me  much  material  for 
observation. 

It  is  commonly  believed,  and  Alfred  Wallace, 
in  particular  among  naturalists,  has  insisted  upon 
the  consideration,  that  whereas  natural  selection 
operated  very  strongly  in  early  stages  of  society 
in  the  direction  of  physical  improvement,  by  the 
elimination  of  the  smaller  and  weaker  individuals, 
civilization  has  now  put  an  end  to,  or  at  least  greatly 
restricted,  its  action.  There  is,  of  course,  a  con- 
siderable amount  of  truth  in  this  doctrine ;  but  if 
one  particlar  form  of  selection,  that  which  may  be 
styled  selection  by  combat,  is  no  longer  largely 
operative,  there  are  other  forms  of  it,  whether 
rightly  to  be  called  "  natural "  or  not  we  need  not 
discuss,  which  are  still  at  work  among  us,  and  some 
of  which  may  conceivably  be  altering  our  physical 
type. 

Conjugal  selection  is  one  of  these.  Francis  Galton 
has  pointed  out  that  the  slackening  or  positive  arrest 
of  intellectual  progress  during  the  Middle  Ages  was 
due  in  some  measure  to  the  fact  that  men  who  had 
more  brain  than  muscle  naturally  gravitated  toward 
3 


^ 


26      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

the  monasteries,  and  being  there  shut  up,  and  pro- 
hibited from  marriage,  did  not  reproduce  their  kind, 
while  the  sturdy  blockheads  who  remained  outside 
the  convent  walls  did  do  so.  The  anthropologist 
in  this  country  has  great  difficulty  in  obtaining 
facilities  for  measuring  mediaeval  skulls :  popular 
and  even  clerical  prejudices  on  the  subject  are  a 
serious  obstacle ;  ^  but  I  have  always  taken  advan- 
tage of  any  such  opportunities;  and  I  have  been 
struck  with  the  fine  frontal  development  of  some 
monkish  skulls,  while  those  of  persons  supposed  to 
have  belonged  to  the  mediaeval  chivalry  were  often 
small  and  poorly  developed.  This  observation  evi- 
dently corroborates  Galton's  idea. 

The  possible  effect  in  this  case  would  be  an  al- 
teration in  the  dimensions  of  the  skull,  particularly 
in  the  frontal  region.  But  it  is  quite  conceivable 
that  the  prevailing  complexion  or  colour  of  hair  and 
eyes  might  be  altered  in  this  kind  of  way.  Fashions 
change  in  regard  to  the  popularity  of  colours ;  and 
they  differ  in  different  countries.  Red  hair  fur- 
nishes the  best  instance.  Red-haired  persons  do  not 
now  constitute  the  majority  in  any  tribe  or  nation, 
not  even  among  the  Voguls  and  Votiaks  of  the 
Uralian  region  ;  but  there  is  some  reason  for  think- 
ing that  red  hair  was  once  much  more  prevalent 
than  now.    In  most  parts  of  India  it  hardly  occursM 

— - -^ 

^The  late  Dean  Macneil  of  Ripon  buried,  unmeasured  and  un- 
chronicled,  a  most  valuable  collection  of  mediaeval  bones,  which  had 
occupied  the  crypt  of  the  minster  for  centuries  before  he  came  to 
disturb  it. 


The  Aryan  Question —  Variation  of  Type.     TJ 

among  the  Brahmins;^  yet  it  is  pretty  certain  that 
it  once  did,  else  why  were  Brahmins  forbidden,  as  it 
is  said  they  were,  by  the  laws  of  Manu,  to  marry 
red-haired  women.  Blonds  and  red-haired  persons 
do  still  occur  about  the  Hindu  Kush,  among  the 
tribes  from  whom  the  Brahmins  are  supposed  to 
have  been  emigrants;  and  from  that  fact,  as  well 
as  from  the  existence  of  the  law,  we  may  con- 
clude that  they  continued  to  appear,  in  small 
numbers  doubtless,  among  the  Brahmins  domi- 
ciled in  India,  and  that  no  unfavourable  action 
of  climate  had  extinguished  them.  But  obedience 
to  the  law  in  question  would  certainly  in  the 
course  of  time  annihilate  the  tendency  to  their 
production. 

In  Germany  the  colour  seems  to  have  been  un- 
popular for  ages,  curiously  enough,  as  it  belonged 
more  particularly  to  the  nobles  and  freemen,  who 
were  of  true  Germanic  blood.  Red-haired  men  are, 
and  have  long  been,  known  as  "foxes"  among  the 
peasantry.  So  far  as  we  can  trust  the  descriptions 
left  us  by  classical  writers — I  confess  I  do  not  trust 
them  implicitly — the  Germans  were  once  as  pre- 
vailingly red-haired  as  we  know,  on  surer  grounds, 
they  were  long-headed ;  but  at  present  red  hair  is 
not  very  common  among  them,  and  when  it  occurs 
it  is  not  like  the  brilliant  Highland  red  that  we  are 
familiar  with.    May  not  fashion,  operating  through 


*  I  have  learned  from  Dr.  Burgess  that  a  small  tribe  of  Brahmins 
exists  somewhere  to  the  south  of  Bombay  among  whom  red  or  light 
hair  is  not  uncommon. 


28      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

conjugal  selection,  have  had  something  to  do  with 
its  diminution. 

In  Britain  there  have  been  changes  in  fashion 
with  regard  to  its  estimation,  and  during  the  pre- 
sent generation  the  aesthetic  revival,  bringing  to 
bear  the  pretty  persistent  admiration  of  it  expressed 
by  artists  and  poets,  have  rendered  it  highly  popu- 
lar, at  least  among  the  upper  classes.  So  it  was 
during  most  of  the  sixteenth  century ;  for  I  believe 
it  was  flattery  in  Holbein  that  led  to  its  appearing 
so  frequently  on  his  canvas ;  and  we  may  apply  the 
same  test  which  convicts  the  golden-haired  beauties 
of  Venice  in  the  palmy  days  of  her  artists ;  we  may 
examine  comparatively  the  portraits  of  the  men  of 
the  same  date,  when  we  shall  find  no  such  pre- 
ponderance of  auburn  and  golden  hues  as  in  the 
other  sex. 

Some  years  ago  I  endeavoured  to  investigate  this 
question  of  the  possible  influence  of  conjugal  selec- 
tion on  colour,  and  the  ultimate  result  to  which 
I  came,  from  the  observation  of  nearly  600  women, 
was  that  among  the  labouring  classes  of  Bristol 
fewer  of  the  red-haired  and  of  the  black -haired 
women  entered  into  matrimony  than  of  the  fair, 
brown,  or  dark-brown.  I  do  not  think  the  basis 
was  broad  enough  to  sustain  much  weight  of  induc- 
tion; but,  as  I  have  stated  elsewhere,  if  the  case 
were  really  as  my  figures  seemed  to  show,  and  if 
the  same  condition  of  things  were  to  endure  for  a 
few  generations,  the  discouragement  of  the  pro- 
duction of  hair  pigment  would  be  so  great  that  we 
should  have  a  general  prevalance  of  dull  shades  of 


The  Aryan  Question — Variation  of  Type.     29 

brown,  to  the  confusion  and  despair  of  poets  and 
artists. 

It  is  very  difficult  to  estimate  or  analyse  at  all 
satisfactorily  the  power  which  different  marriage- 
rates  may  have  upon  the  reproduction  of  different 
elements  of  population.  That  it  may  be  very  great 
has  been  shown  by  Francis  Galton,  in  his  Record  of 
Family  Faculties,  where,  taking  two  populations 
of  equal  number,  in  one  of  which  the  women  are 
supposed  to  marry  at  the  age  of  20,  and  the  other 
at  29,  all  other  things  being  equal,  he  calculates  that 
in  324  years  the  former  group  will  have  increased 
from  100  to  535,  while  the  latter  will  have  decreased 
from  100  to  23.  "The  general  result,"  says  he,  "is 
that  the  group  B  gradually  disappears,  and  the 
group  A  more  than  supplants  it." 

Of  course  the  matter  is  not  quite  so  simple  as  it 
appears  in  Galton's  statement ;  there  are  considera- 
tions, for  example,  as  to  the  relative  mortality  of 
children,  of  premature,  of  mature,  and  of  too  late 
marriages,  which  cannot  be  very  accurately  weighed, 
and  which  are  here  put  aside ;  but  there  can  be  no 
doubt  of  the  substantial  truth  of  the  conclusion, 
that  in  a  few  hundred  years  the  community  A  would 
be  a  good  many  times  more  numerous  than  the  com- 
munity B,  which  latter  would  be  well  on  its  way 
towards  extinction. 

Yet  the  disadvantage  at  which  community  B  is 
placed,  in  this  imaginary  comparison,  is  probably 
not  so  great  as  that  at  which  some  sections  or 
classes  in  a  nation  are  frequently  placed  in  relation 
to  the  rest.     Let   us  allow   that   in  the  days  of 


30      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

long-period  military  service  the  enlisted  men  were 
physically  above  the  average  in  stature  and  vigour. 
I  conjecture  that  such  was  really  the  case  while 
the  standard  for  recruits  was  high,  and  when  the 
Scottish  Highlanders  and  the  south-country  and 
Irish  peasantry  were  still  enlisting.  It  is  clear  that 
these  men,  as  a  class,  could  not  have  reproduced  the 
species  to  any  great  extent ;  such  of  them  as  escaped 
all  the  dangers  of  a  soldier's  career  returned  home 
comparatively  late  in  life,  and  would  be  in  a  worse 
position  in  this  respect  by  far  than  Galton's  com- 
munity B.  And  inasmuch  as  they  were  so,  the 
general  physical  standard  of  the  next  generation 
would,  we  conclude,  be  slightly  lowered.  It  was 
lowered  in  France  by  Napoleon's  wars. 

But  soldiers  are  not  the  only  class  in  which  the 
relative  frequency  of  marriage  is  lessened,  and  the 
average  age  at  marriage  raised,  by  the  circum- 
stances of  their  profession.  In  this  country,  and  at 
the  present  time,  this  applies  more  or  less  to  the 
(/'whole  of  the  upper  middle  classes,  the  best  educated 
portion  of  the  community,  who  will  therefore  con- 
tribute far  less  than  their  share  to  the  mass  of  the 
coming  generation. 

In  most  countries,  and  at  most  periods,  the  in- 
fluence of  caste-division  has  made  itself  felt  in 
this  direction.  To  some  races,  reduction  to  slavery 
has  been  merely  a  deferred  death-sentence;  thus 
nations  perished,  after  passing  through  the  status 
of  slavery,  during  the  expansion  of  the  Roman 
power;  and  the  Indians  of  the  Antilles  withered 
away  under  the  Spanish  tyranny.    The  freemen  of 


The  Aryan  Question — Variation  of  Type.     31 

ancient  Greece  seem  to  have  multiplied  their  noble 
type  of  man  at  a  very  rapid  rate ;  and  their  civiliza- 
tion was  based  upon  slavery.  But  the  rule  is  that 
a  governing  caste  multiplies  far  less  freely  than  a 
subordinate  one.  There  are  several  obvious  causes 
for  this.  The  prudential  check  tells  more  on  those 
who  have  something  to  lose,  than  on  those  who 
have  nothing. 

Thus,  in  the  old  border  ballad.  Sir  James  Murray 
is  quite  willing  to  risk  his  life  by  rising  in  arms 
against  the  King : 

"  The  king  has  gifted  my  lands  langsyne  ; 
It  canna  be  nae  waur  with  me  ! " 

while  Andrew  Murray,  the  more  prosperous  mem- 
ber of  the  family,  takes  a  more  anxious  view — 

"  Judge  gif  it  stands  na  hard  wi'  me 
To  enter  against  a  king  wi*  crown, 
An'  put  my  lands  in  jeopardie  ?  " 

Then  the  ruling  or  superior  caste  is  usually  and 
naturally  the  military  one,  and  subject  to  all  the 
risks  of  military  life.^  But  most  important  is 
usually  the  caste  -  feeling  against  giving  the 
daughters  of  the  family  to  inferiors  in  rank,  even 
when  no  other  husbands  are  available.  Hence  in- 
fanticide and  nunneries,  and  gradual  decline  in 
numbers  of  the  legitimate  members  of  the  caste; 
while  the  subordinate  castes,  wherein  marriage  is 
more  facile,  multiply  and  rise  to  power. 

^  "  Rara  est  in  nobilitate  senectus,"  is  the  motto  on  the  fine  old 
monument  of  the  Herberts  in  Montgomery  Church. 


32      The  A  nthropological  History  of  Europe. 

The  great  expenditure  of  life  among  mariners, 
many  of  whom  perish  unmarried  at  early  ages, 
must  at  least  diminish  the  rate  of  increase  among 
maritime  communities. 
^  Among  people  who  emigrate  from  their  native 
country  to  colonise  another  and  a  vacant  or  a 
thinly-peopled  one,  divers  and  contrary  influences 
seem  to  work.  In  the  beginning,  while  there 
are  still  difficulties  with  hostile  aborigines,  scanty 
supplies  of  food,  ignorance  of  the  effects  of  climate, 
and  so  forth,  there  is  usually  great  expenditure  of 
life  and  little  re-production;  but  as  the  colony 
grows  and  thrives,  and  receives  a  sufficient  supply 
of  the  female  element,  the  birth-rate  usually  be- 
comes exceedingly  high,  and  multiplication  rapid. 
Perhaps  the  most  conspicuous  modern  instance  of 
this  is  to  be  found  in  the  province  of  Quebec, 
where  the  French  Canadians,  assisted  probably  by 
the  cross  of  Red  Indian  blood  which  brings  their 
constitution  into  better  harmony  with  the  climate, 
have  multiplied  in  a  century  and  a  half  from  a  few 
thousands  up  to  more  than  a  million. 

In  Australasia,  too,  as  well  as  in  the  United  States 
of  America,  the  rate  of  increase  was  for  a  long  time 
exceedingly  high,  though  in  both  it  seems  to  be  now 
diminishing  with  the  increase  of  density  of  popula- 
tion, and  of  the  social  difficulties  thereby  entailed. 
At  the  same  time  the  artisan  population  of  the 
towns  seems  to  contribute  the  greater  proportion  of 
the  increase,  while  among  the  adventurous  pioneers 
in  the  back  settlements  the  rate  is  comparatively 
low.    The  relevance  of  this  may  not  immediately 


The  Aryan  Question — Variation  of  Type.     33 

appear;  but  it  will  seem  more  distinct  when  I  call 
your  attention  to  the  fact  that  types  of  men,  different 
physically  as  well  as  morally,  gravitate  towards  dif- 
ferent lines  of  life.  Thus  Calvinistic  theology  is 
attractive  to  the  man  of  melancholic,  not  to  the 
man  of  sanguine  temperament.  Now,  these  tem- 
peraments have  respectively  their  external  signs, 
and  do  not  occur  with  equal  frequency  in  all  races. 
There  are  many  other  factors  in  the  destiny  of  an 
individual  besides  his  physical  constitution ;  but  "^^^^ 
nevertheless  I  believe  you  will  find  that  an  unusual 
proportion  of  men  with  dark  straight  hair  enter  the 
ministry;  that  the  red-whiskered  men  are  apt  to  be 
given  to  sporting  and  horseflesh ;  and  that  tall, 
vigorous  blond  long-headed  men,  lineal  descendants 
of  the  Vikings,  or  of  the  Athelings  who  "won  Eng- 
land, and  refused  not  the  hard  sword-play,"  still 
furnish  a  large  contingent  to  our  travellers  and 
emigrants.  We  shall  see  presently  that  that  was 
the  physical  type  of  the  Germans  who  took  part  in 
the  overthrow  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  in  what 
their  countrymen — it  would  be  a  little  too  bold  to 
say  "their  descendants" — call  the  Wandering  of 
Nations  (Volkswanderung) ;  and  it  would  seem  to 
have  been  also  that  of  the  leaders,  at  least,  of  the 
Gauls,  who  colonised  Galatia  and  brought  home  the 
treasures  of  Greece  and  Italy  to  Toulouse;  and  it 
has  at  present  more  representatives  among  the 
Scandinavians  and  ourselves  than  among  other 
peoples.  In  this  way,  and  by  the  sparing  of  the  tall 
youths  in  the  Australian  life  of  open  air  and  abund- 
ant food,  one  might  account  for  the  prevalence  of 


34      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

tall,  fair  types  among  the  colonial-born  (the  "  corn- 
stalks"), a  prevalence  which  is  generally  asserted, 
and  which  accords  with  my  own  observation. 

The  direct  influence  of  the  kind  or  quality  of 
food,  apart  from  its  sufficiency  or  insufficiency  in 
quality,  was  a  favourite  point  among  the  philos- 
ophers of  the  last  century.  The  mild  Hindu  was 
supposed  to  owe  his  postulated  mildness  to  a  diet 
of  rice,  the  Briton  his  martial  ferocity  to  beef  and 
beer.  Some  of  our  modern  vegetarians  make  use  of 
this  line  of  argument.  It  would  be  easy,  of  course, 
to  cite  countervailing  instances.  Thus  the  peaceful 
Eskimos  are  perforce  and  exclusively  eaters  of  fish 
and  flesh :  while  the  Maoris,  the  Fijians,  the  Fans, 
all  ruthless  cannibals,  were  the  outcome  of  genera- 
tions of  habitual  vegetarianism.  Let  us  look  rather 
at  the  physical  side,  which  our  high-flown  ancestors 
rather  neglected.  Can  the  nature  or  abundance  of 
food  alter  the  colour  or  form  of  the  individual? 
and,  if  so,  can  the  alterations  be  transmitted  to  his 
descendants  ? 

I  have  never  happened  to  see  this  question  of 
colour-change  in  man  by  food  discussed ;  though 
I  have  little  doubt  that  it  has  been  so.  It  is 
confidently  stated  that  the  plumage  of  canaries 
and  some  other  singing-birds  can  be  considerably 
altered,  in  the  direction  of  red  or  orange,  by  feed- 
ing them  with  spicy  stimulating  food,  red  pepper 
and  the  like.  Possibly  the  red  colouring  matter 
may  be  transmitted  from  the  food  to  the  feathers, 
or  perhaps  some  change  in  the  minute  structure  of 
the  plumes  may  be  brought  about.    Anyhow,  I  am 


The  Aryan  Question — Variation  of  Type.     35 

informed  that  the  beautiful  colours  of  feathers  are 
due  more  to  the  lamellar  structural  arrangement 
than  to  a  deposit  of  pigment,  which  gives  most 
of  the  colour  to  human  skin  and  hair.  Still,  it 
seems  quite  possible  that  the  production  of  pig- 
ment might  be  increased  by  a  diet  that  mildly 
stimulated  the  organs  which  produce  it.  It  is 
apparently  lessened  in  wasting  disease. 

As  to  form,  the  probability  is  certainly  greater. 
Robert  Gordon  Latham  thought  that  both  form 
and  colour  might  in  some  degree  depend  on  the 
geological  structure  of  the  habitat,  and  advised  me, 
when  I  was  collecting  the  materials  for  my  work  on 
the  Stature  and  Bulk  of  Man  in  the  British  Isles, 
to  pay  particular  attention  to  the  carboniferous 
limestone.  I  was  not  successful  in  making  out  any- 
thing like  what  he  expected  :  in  a  country  like  ours, 
where  comparatively  little  of  the  food  consumed  is 
raised  on  the  spot,  the  differences  between  the  pro- 
ductions of  several  geological  districts  are  not  so 
likely  to  be  operative  as  in  other  lands ;  though  the 
absence  or  abundance  of  lime  and  magnesia  in  the 
drinking-water  might  be  equally  so  here  as  else- 
where. Durand  de  Gros  finds  physical  differences 
between  the  people  of  the  calcareous  and  the 
granitic  parts  of  the  Rouergue  (in  the  south  of 
France),  which  he  cannot  account  for  by  difference 
of  race:  the  dwellers  in  the  former  are,  as  one 
would  expect,  the  better  developed,  while  those 
in  the  Segalas,  the  granitic  country,  are  smaller, 
inferior  in  form  and  complexion,  less  strong  but 
more  active.    He  thinks  that  he  finds  a  difference 


36      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

even  in  the  colour  of  the  hair,  the  Segalas  men 
being  the  darker;  but  that  may  depend  on  the 
seizure  of  the  better  land  by  the  more  vigorous 
and  fairer  race. 

But  may  not  the  superabundance  of  lime  in  food 
and  water  tell  also  on  the  form  of  the  skull  ?  We 
know  that  in  rickets  the  deficiency  or  malassimila- 
tion  of  lime  leads,  among  other  consequences,  to 
deformity  of  the  skull  in  the  way  of  greater  round- 
ness. This  is  due  to  the  thinness  of  the  bones  and 
to  defective  or  postponed  ossification  of  the  sutures. 
On  the  other  hand,  excess  of  phosphate  of  lime  in 
food  seems  to  conduce  to  good  physical  develop- 
ment. Thus  in  Switzerland  the  most  robust  men 
are  found  in  Nidwalden  and  Ticino,  two  cantons 
which  agree  in  only  one  discoverable  point,  viz., 
the  great  consumption  of  cheese,  the  aliment 
most  rich  in  phosphate  of  lime.  "Then,"  says 
Schaaffhausen,  "may  not  a  superabundance  of 
phosphate  of  lime  in  the  food,  such  as  would 
be  apt  to  occur  among  a  wild  uncivilised  [hunt- 
ing and  pastoral.'']  people,  lead  to  premature  ossifi- 
cation of  the  cranial  sutures  and  thus  to  contraction 
of  breadth  and  increase  of  length  of  skull,  which 
is  precisely  what  we  find  in  the  old  long-headed 
denizens  of  Central  Europe."  The  only  objection 
that  I  can  see  is  that  the  Mongols  and  other  races 
of  Central  Asia,  who  live  very  much  in  the  manner 
contemplated,  feeding  on  flesh  and  milk,  have  not 
long  but  broad  and  round  skulls. 


LECTURE    II. 


VARIATION— PRIMEVAL  MAN— SUCCES- 
SION OF  RACES. 

Opinions  of  contemporary  anthropologists  —  Kollman's  five  per- 
manent European  types — Deniker  on  importance  of  hair  as  a 
character — Schaaffhauaen  on  inferiority  of  primitive  man  and 
of  the  longheaded  type — Ancient  types  :  the  Canstatt  :  the 
Cro-magnon  :  the  Eskimo — Neolithic  period  :  brachykephals 
abroad  ;  none  in  Britain — Bronze  periods — Swarming  of  suc- 
cessive races  :  Phoenicians,  Greeks,  Gauls,  Romans,  Teutons, 
Saracens,  Slavs,  Turco-mongols. 

TJAVING  touched  lightly  the  nature  of  the  agents 
-Li-  which  may  be  supposed  to  influence  and  alter 
the  physical  aspect  of  mankind,  let  us  now  enquire 
what  are  the  opinions  of  anthropologists  as  to  their 
actual  potency.  These  opinions  differ  very  widely. 
I  will  indicate  what  may  be  considered  the  extreme 
views,  both  held  by  men  of  light  and  leading.  Thus, 
Kollmann  of  Basel  expresses  himself  to  the  following 
effect : — 

"  Many  observations  have  been  made  use  of  as 
indications  of  a  power  in  external  influences, 
slow  in  action  indeed,  but  undeniable ;  and  some 
have  ascribed  very  great  scope  to  the  variability 
of  European  types  since  their  appearance  at  the 
diluvial  period  until  now.  It  is,  however,  ques- 
tionable whether  any  kind  of  modifying  changes 
in  the  typical  peculiarities  of  the  skeleton,  or  the 
more  prominent  bodily  features,  have  really  oc- 


38      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

curred.  Their  race-characters  were  in  my  belief 
already  so  settled  and  confirmed  when  the  Euro- 
pean races  first  arrived  here,  that  they  remain 
constant  under  the  most  powerful  modifying 
agencies,  and  that  the  whole  period  which  has 
since  elapsed  has  not  been  sufficient  to  produce 
even  moderate  changes." 

The  very  considerable  differences  in  physical 
aspect  which  we  daily  observe  within  the  limits  of 
a  single  nationality  are  due,  in  his  opinion,  to  mix- 
ture of  blood,  the  actual  limits  of  variation  in  a  pure 
race  being  comparatively  narrow.  He  recognizes 
five  separate  race-types  in  Europe,  which  he  dis- 
criminates according  to  the  relative  lengths  and 
breadths  of  head  and  face.^  Thus  one  has  a  long  head 
and  a  narrow  face :  this  type  preponderated  greatly 
in  the  ancient  Germans,  and  specimens  of  it  are  very 
common  in  the  British  Isles.  Another  has  a  long 
head  but  a  broad  face,  narrow  orbits,  and  a  dyshar- 
monic  type:  this  was  the  old  Cro-magnon  race  of 
the  caves  of  Perigord,  in  France.  The  broad-headed 
long-faced  type  is  nowadays  the  prevailing  one  in 
the  Tyrol  and  Bavaria  proper.  The  type  with  both 
broad  head  and  broad  face  prevails  among  the  Lapps 
and  in  the  Caucasus;  and  wherever  Mongoloid  tribes 
have  settled  in  force,  as  in  parts  of  Eastern  Europe. 

1  It  may  as  well  be  noted  here  that  Anders  Retzius,  who  first  divided 
mankind  into  longheads  and  shortheads,  dolichokephals  and  brachy- 
kephals,  put  the  limit  of  the  two  at  a  breadth  equal  to  80  per  cent, 
of  the  length.  Nowadays,  those  with  ratios  between  75  and  80  are 
reckoned  as  intermediate,  those  beyond  85  are  called  hyperbrachy- 
kephals,  and  so  forth.  The  distinction  of  long  and  short  faces  is  made 
on  a  similar  principle,  i.e.,  it  depends  on  the  relative,  not  the  absolute, 
length  and  breadth  of  the  face. 


Variation  of  Type.  39 

The  mesokephalic  (shall  we  say  middle-headed,  or 
having  skulls  of  medium  breadth?)  with  a  broad 
face,  occurred  among  the  prehistoric  peoples :  the 
well-known  skull  from  the  Judge's  Cave  at  Gib- 
raltar may  have  belonged  to  it :  in  the  historic 
period  it  was  common  among  the  Helvetii,  and  at 
the  present  day  among  the  Franconian  and  Thur- 
ingean  Germans.  But  what  Kollmann  chiefly  in- 
sists on  is,  that  all  these  types  occurred  in  Europe 
at  early  periods,  that  even  then,  every  community, 
so  far  as  we  can  judge,  included  representatives  of 
several  or  all  of  them,  and  that  such  is  the  case  still, 
the  types  intertwining  like  the  strands  of  a  rope, 
but  seldom,  or  with  the  utmost  slowness,  mingling 
like  the  waters  of  so  many  rivers. 

De  Quatrefages  says,  "The  companions  of  the 
Mammoth  and  Reindeer  have  not  disappeared,  they 
are  still  among  us."  Of  that  I  entertain  no  doubt : 
I  have  myself,  once  and  again,  encountered  in  the 
flesh  the  man  of  Neanderthal;  but  Kollmann  goes 
further:  he  says — "The  European  in  all  his  varieties 
or  races  is  ready  and  fit  for  anything,  whenever  we 
drag  his  bones  to  the  daylight  from  under  the  earth- 
crust;  he  was  ready  when  he  kept  company  with 
the  Mammoth.  He  had  nothing  inferior,  neither  in 
the  build  of  his  braincase,  nor  in  the  formation  of 
his  face,  in  itself,  but  was  '  homo  sapiens '  in  his  best 
form  already  in  the  diluvium,  then  again  in  the 
Reindeertide,  and  in  the  pile-dwellings.  If  we  are 
ever  to  find  out  anything  about  the  differentiation 
of  man  into  sub-species  and  races,  we  must  go  fur- 
ther back,  perhaps  into  the  Miocene  age." 


40      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

Let  me  here  say,  parenthetically,  of  Kollmann's 
five  types,  that  though  there  is  much  to  be  said  in 
their  favour,  they  appear  to  me  somewhat  too  arbi- 
trary in  their  limitations,  and  too  few  in  number. 
Thus  we  have  in  Britain,  for  example,  two  varieties 
of  his  leptoprosopic  dolichokephalic  (long-headed 
and  long-faced  type),  discriminated  in  several  points, 
and  particularly,  as  a  rule,  in  colour :  the  one  is  of 
Anglo-Saxon,  the  other  probably  of  Iberian  origin. 
Of  the  colour  of  prehistoric  races  we  can  unfortun- 
ately know  nothing,  except  by  inference ;  even  of 
that  of  early  historic  ones  but  little;  for  hair,  though 
one  of  the  least  destructible  of  animal  tissues,  is 
liable,  under  some  circumstances,  to  post-mortem 
changes  of  colour.  But  as  to  its  importance  in 
classification,  let  us  hear  Deniker,  a  great  authority 
in  that  department.  "  On  the  whole,  it  seems  to  us 
that  the  measurements  of  different  parts  of  the  body 
constitute  very  good  characters  of  the  second  and 
third  order,  we  believe  we  are  in  the  right  in  main- 
taining that  the  characters  of  the  primary  divisions 
(of  mankind)  ought  to  be  drawn  from  the  nature  of 
the  hair  and  the  colour  of  the  skin." 

To  return.  Schaaffhausen,  differing  from  Koll- 
mann,  enumerates  the  various  marks  of  inferiority, 
the  various  reminders  of  simian  anatomical  features, 
which  he  finds  among  the  skulls  of  primeval  men, 
and  more  than  one  of  which  are  apt  to  be  found 
combined  in  the  early  long-headed  races.  Among 
these  are  the  receding  forehead  with  swollen  eye- 
brow ridges,  as  in  the  Neanderthal  and  Spy  and 
Briix  men,  and  the  underjaw  wanting  in  chin,  as 


Variation  of  Type.  41 

in  the  La  Naulette  specimen.  "With  a  receding 
forehead  are  generally  associated,"  he  says,  "a  pro- 
minent muzzle,  large  teeth,  high-placed  temporal 
lines,  strong  occipital  ridges,  simple  sutures,  small 
cranial  capacity.  In  primitive  longheads  the  tem- 
poral squama  or  scale  often  reaches  to  the  frontal, 
instead  of  being  separated  by  the  wing  of  the 
sphenoid  bone;  and  this  often  occurs  also  in  African 
negroes,  in  Australians,  Peruvians,  and  Mongols ;  it 
occurs  also  in  anthropoid  apes,  except  in  orangs. 
Or  sometimes,  though  it  does  not  reach  so  far,  yet 
it  is  long  and  low."  Other  low  characters  are,  says 
Schaaffhausen,  a  short  sagittal  suture,  a  narrow,  flat 
frontal :  so  too  the  occipital  scale  standing  out  like  a 
bowl  from  the  back  of  the  head  (baothrokephaly),  and 
the  prominent  parietal  bosses,  for  these  are  remains 
of  childish  forms.  (The  bowl-like  protuberance,  as 
we  shall  see,  is  very  characteristic  of  the  Alemannic 
conquerors  of  Swabia  and  Switzerland.)  Retzius 
thought,  it  is  true,  that  the  projecting  occiput, 
being  a  result  of  greater  development  of  the  pos- 
terior lobe,  indicated  a  noble  or  advanced  type  ;  but 
this  Schaaffhausen  disputes.  Having  the  greatest 
breadth  in  the  parietal  region  is  a  low  feature :  this 
is  found  in  the  famous  skull  of  Engis,  as  well  as  in 
Australians.  Malay  skulls,  which  belong  to  a  low 
form  of  shorthead,  have  also  the  greatest  breadth 
near  the  parietal  bosses.  A  long  flat  extending 
from  below  these  bosses  to  the  temples  rank  low; 
he  means  here,  apparently,  flatness  of  the  temporo- 
frontal  region,  which  is  very  general  among  the 
Gael,  whether  Irish  or  Scottish,  and  was  common 

4 


42      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

among  Romano-Britons,  but  much  less  so  among 
the  Saxon  English  and  Scandinavians. 

Add  to  these,  flatness  of  the  floor  of  the  nostrils, 
flat  nasal  bones,^  large  molar  teeth,  elliptic  palate, 
small  occipital  tuberosity  (for  the  tuberosity  has  to 
do  with  the  erect  position).  Simplicity  of  sutures, 
and  early  closing  thereof,  go  with  low  organization: 
this  simplicity  was  commoner  among  fossil  dogs 
than  among  modern  house  dogs,  and  it  is  found  in 
several  of  the  prehistoric  long  skulls,  as  those  of 
Engis  and  Nieder-Ingelheim,  and  in  the  Batavus 
Genuinus  of  Blumenbach. 

Schaaffhausen  thinks,  moreover,  that  the  tem- 
poral muscles,  and  indeed  the  other  kephalic  muscles, 
all  work  towards  lengthening  of  the  skull;  and 
large  temporal  muscles  go  with  the  use  of  the  coarse 
food  of  the  savage  life.  Finally,  he  says  that  though 
in  some  cases  the  skull  may  grow  large  and  broad 
simply  from  want  of  lime,  the  head  does  acquire 
that  last  increase  of  size  and  development  which 
corresponds  to  increase  of  intelligence,  through  an 
enlargement  in  breadth.  Against  this  I  should  be 
disposed  to  make  use  of  the  fact  that  adult  heads 
are  relatively  to  their  length  narrower  than  those  of 
children ;  but  perhaps  Schaaffhausen  would  account 
for  that  by  muscular  action.  I  will  here  simply 
mention  some  varieties  in  other  parts  of  the  skele- 
ton, which  occur  frequently  or  usually  in  some 
ancient  races,  whereas  they  are  now  rare.    Such  are 


1 1  think  most  ancient  skulls  had  good  and  prominent  noses ;   but 
the  nasal  bones  are  seldom  cognizable. 


Primeval  Man — Succession  of  Races.         43 

the  pilaster-,  or  columnar-femur,  the  flattened  tibia 
(platyknemia),  the  perforation  of  the  lower  humerus, 
forms  whose  utility  has  apparently  ceased,  but  which 
are  not  necessarily  to  be  called  low. 

To  sum  up  this  view  of  the  transformation 
question,  "Der  Mensch,"  says  Buschan,  reviewing 
Schaaffhausen,  "ist  nichts  weniger  als  ein  Dauer- 
typus."    Man  is  in  nowise  an  unchangeable  entity. 

Before  proceeding  to  divide  Europe  into  great 
historical  provinces,  on  a  basis  partly  political, 
partly  ethnological,  it  may  be  well  to  give  a  brief 
sketch  of  its  general  anthropological  history,  es- 
pecially of  that  portion  of  such  history  as  was 
prior  to  the  formation  of  the  present  divisions  and 
nations. 

Our  knowledge  of  this  is  more  advanced  as  re- 
gards the  west  and  south-west,  partly  because  in 
the  quaternary  period  the  north  and  east  were 
not  inhabited,  partly  because  civilization  is  more 
advanced  and  science  more  cultivated  in  the  west 
and  north-west ;  and  as  France,  Belgium,  and  por- 
tions of  the  countries  lying  next  to  the  east  of 
them,  combine  both  these  advantages,  it  is  here 
that  anthropological  history  may  be  said  to  begin, 
and  here  only  that  plausible  attempts  have  been 
made  to  minutely  subdivide  the  prehistoric  periods, 
in  accordance  with  their  archaeological  products. 

The  general  results  may  be  thus  stated:  The 
oldest  human  forms  that  have  been  found  and 
located  geographically,  or  rather  palaeontologically, 
with  some  approach  to  certitude,  are  long-headed — 
dolichokephalic,  and  that  very  distinctly.    And  we 


44      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

may  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  all,  or  almost  all  the 
crania  may  be  distributed  under  two  types,  though 
whether  we  are  entitled  to  say  two  races  is  not 
yet  quite  clear:  the  French  say  so,  but  Virchow  was 
doubtful.  The  first  of  these  was  the  Canstatt  type, 
so  called  from  the  place  where  the  first  specimen 
was  discovered ;  though  the  Neanderthal  skull  is  a 
much  better  known  example.  It  is  long  rather  than 
narrow,  deficient  in  height,  with  thick  bones,  huge 
frowning  brows,  low  forehead  and  prominent  occi- 
*  put,  protruding  in  the  form  which  the  German 
anatomists  call  kiigelig  (like  a  bowl).  Some  very 
low-type  chinless  lower  jaws  have  been  ascribed  to 
this  type ;  but  the  attribution  is  not  always  clear : 
in  the  modern  skulls  which  have  been  supposed  to 
reproduce  the  type  the  chin  is  often  strong  and  pro- 
minent. Most  of  these  skulls  have  been  found  in 
caves  in  the  mountain  limestone ;  and  it  may  be 
suggested,  that  some  of  their  peculiarities  may 
have  been  connected  with  too  great  a  supply  of 
calcareous  salts,  whence  perhaps  the  premature 
closing  (synostosis)  of  the  sagittal  suture  and  the 
enormous  development  of  the  bony  browridges.^ 

The  other  long  type  is  that  called  the  Cro- 
magnon.  Here  also  the  head  is  long,  narrow  rela- 
tively rather  than  absolutely,  moderate  in  height; 
the  capacity  is  often  large  compared  with  modern 
averages;  the  forehead  is  well  developed,  but  the 
browridges  not  so  large  as  in  the  Canstatt  type. 


^  Barnard  Davis  ascribed  most  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  Neanderthal 
skull  to  premature  synostosis. 


Primeval  Man — Succession  of  Races.         45 

The  occiput  is  large  and  capacious,  but  has  not  the 
marked  protuberance  just  now  described.  The 
orbits  are  squarely  formed  and  low;  so  that  the 
eyes  were  probably  narrow  (as  in  many  Irishmen), 
the  nose  of  medium  breadth  (mesorhine).  The 
limbs  were  robust;  but  the  femur  and  tibia  ex- 
hibited the  pilastral  and  platyknemic  forms.  These 
men  may  have  been  savages;  but  they  were  capable 
savages,  at  least.  The  frontal  development  is  dis- 
tinctively better  than  in  the  Canstatt  types. 

There  are  probably  other  quaternary  skull  forms 
yet  to  be  discovered.  In  fact,  Professor  Testut  of 
Lyons  has  given  us  an  elaborate  memoir  on  one 
such,  discovered  at  Chancelade.  It  belonged  to 
a  man  of  small  stature,  but  it  is  large  and  long, 
differs  decidedly  from  either  the  Canstatt  or  the 
Cro-magnon  form,  and  seems  to  resemble  the 
well-known  Eskimo  variety.  You  may  be  aware 
that  our  own  Boyd-Dawkins  published,  years  ago, 
his  conjecture  that  the  Eskimos,  or  a  branch  of 
them,  had  once  dwelt  in  north-western  Europe. 

There  are  others,  too,  who  think  there  was  a 
chasm,  an  absolute  hiatus,  between  these  palaeo- 
lithic people  and  those  who  followed  them ;  that 
the  former  perished  utterly  or  wandered  away 
before  the  neolithic  folk  arrived,  bringing  with 
them  the  beginnings  of  civilisation.  I  don't  think 
anyone  on  the  Continent  now  holds  that  view. 
Huxley  pronounced  against  it,  though  not  very 
strongly.  For  myself,  I  am  not  a  geologist,  and 
perhaps  cannot  appreciate  the  evidence  from  that 
side;   but  I  know  that  these  old  types  are  repre- 


46      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

sented  among  us  at  the  present  day,  and  I  believe  it 
is  by  right  of  heredity.  St.  Mansuy  of  Toul,  and 
Kai  Lykke,  a  famous  Danish  noble,  belonged  to  that 
of  Canstatt,  and  so,  it  is  said,  did  King  Robert 
Bruce,  though  he  had  good  brains  as  well  as  thews 
and  sinews.^  I  have  seen  in  the  flesh,  as  I  said  just 
now,  more  than  one  exquisite  example  of  it ;  and  of 
the  Cro-magnon  I  have  seen  a  great  many,  without 
having  gone  so  far  as  the  Canary  Islands  to  look  for 
them. 

"Nor  need  we  blush,"  said  the  noble  Broca, 
"  to  own  for  ancestors  those  rude  quaternary 
hunters  who  knew  how  to  conquer  animals  more 
terrible  and  more  real  than  the  monsters  com- 
bated by  Hercules,  and  who,  first  in  the  world, 
long  before  the  Assyrians  and  the  Egyptians,  lit 
the  torch  of  art.  They  knew  not  electricity  nor 
steam ;  they  were  not  armed  with  metallic  wea- 
pons and  with  gunpowder;  but,  weak  as  they 
were,  and  with  weapons  of  stone  only,  they  sus- 
tained against  nature  a  struggle  that  was  not 
without  grandeur ;  and  the  progress  which  they 
realised  at  the  cost  of  such  efforts,  prepared  the 
soil  on  which  civilisation  was  to  grow." 

These  were  the  two  races,  if  two  they  were,  to 
which  the  great  majority  of  quaternary  crania  may 
be  referred,  and  it  seems  hardly  likely,  now,  that 
this  conclusion  will  be  disturbed,  that  longheads 
constituted  the  chief  population  of  Western  Europe 
in  those  times.     Still,  the  broadheads,  the  brachy 


^  The  skull  of  Bruce  has  prominent  brows  and  a  receding  forehead, 
but  its  breadth  does  not  consist  with  the  Canstatt  type. 


Primeval  Man — Succession  of  Races.         47 

kephals,  were  not  unrepresented,  at  least  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  period.  The  palaeolithic  antiquity 
of  a  strongly  brachykephalic  skull  found  at  Nagy 
Szap  in  Hungary,  is  said  to  be  unimpeachable ;  and 
in  Belgium,  in  the  reindeer  period,  those  found  by 
Dupont  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Furfooz  are  at 
least  on  the  confines  of  brachykephaly,  and  in  other 
respects  are  of  an  entirely  different  type  to  any  of 
the  quaternary  long  skulls.  In  Germany,  too, 
brachykephalic  skulls  are  said  to  have  been  dug  out 
of  the  loess. 

With  the  period  of  recency  in  geology,  and  that 
of  polished  stone  in  archaeology,  we  gain  a  great 
access  of  light,  and  in  some  countries  an  abundance 
of  material.  Whereas  the  two  principal  long-headed 
types  had  been  scattered  here  and  there,  apparently 
dove-tailing  with  each  other,  we  now  find  a  central 
type  apparently  derived  from  the  Cro-magnon, 
though  softened  in  its  more  striking  characteristics, 
predominating  in  France,  probably  in  Spain,  and 
certainly  in  Britain,  where  the  principal  occupants 
of  the  longbarrows  nearly  always  display  it.  An- 
other, having  a  relation  to  that  of  Canstatt,  seems 
to  abound  in  the  more  northern  countries,  in 
Germany  and  Sweden  and  through  all  the  great 
plain  of  northern  and  eastern-central  Europe.  The 
brachykephals,  whether  or  not  they  have  received 
an  accession  from  the  east,  whether  or  not  it  is  they 
who  have  now  brought  our  domestic  animals  and 
cultivated  plants  from  Asia,  are  certainly  much 
more  in  evidence;  in  central  France  they  have  con- 
tests with  the  indigenous  longheads,  over  whom 


48      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

they  seem  to  prevail :  there  and  in  Italy  they  mix 
with  their  predecessors;  and  one  may  find  in  one 
grave  skulls  with  breadth-indices  from  little  over 
70  to  nearly  90,  a  thing  hardly  conceivable  in  the 
same  race  unless  from  the  intervention  of  disease. 
In  the  dolmens  of  France,  in  the  pile-works  or  lake 
villages  of  Switzerland,  in  the  caves  of  higher  Bel- 
gium, in  the  kitchen-middens  and  tumuli  of  Scan- 
dinavia, in  the  Hiinnebetten  or  Giant's  Graves  of 
Germany,  we  find  the  same  admixture,  but  never 
in  England.  Here  in  Scotland,  too,  as  Sir  Daniel 
Wilson  pointed  out,  the  form  of  long  skull,  which 
he  called  boat-shaped,  prevailed  pretty  exclusively, 
while  the  few  Irish  skulls  which  may  belong  to  the 
period  are  also  long,  and  have  the  modern  Hibernian 
aspect. 

We  have  seen,  then,  that  history  in  Europe 
generally  begins  comparatively  late,  in  fact  only 
somewhere  in  the  last  millennium  before  our  era. 
For  a  good  many  years,  of  course,  we  had  known 
that  the  domain  of  history,  as  distinguished  from 
mere  tradition  and  conjecture,  extended  backwards 
in  Mesopotamia  and  still  more  decidedly  in  Egypt, 
far  beyond  what  was  the  case  in  Europe.  Only  in 
the  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  did  we 
begin  to  learn,  under  the  auspices  of  Petrie  and 
other  Egyptologists,  that  the  area  of  historical  day- 
light might  be  extended  from  Egypt  and  Western 
Asia  over  the  Egean  and  its  western  coasts.  Under 
Schliemann,  Homer,  from  a  purely  poetical  or 
mythical,  assumed  a  half  historic  character;  and 
under  Arthur  Evans  and  Sayce  and  quite  a  crowd  of 


Primeval  Man — Succession  of  Races.         49 

skilled  workers,  the  prehistoric  in  Crete  is  assuming 
form  and  solidity.  The  early  observers  in  this  field 
dealt  with  ethnography  rather  than  with  physical 
anthropology;  but  latterly  Myers,  Duckworth  and 
Hawes  have  corroborated  the  conjecture  that  the 
early  Cretans,  the  "  Minoans,"  were  of  what  most  of 
us  called  the  Mediterranean  type,  resembling  the 
early  occupants  of  South  Italy  and  Spain.  They 
seem  to  have  been  short  of  stature,  lithe  of  frame, 
and  dark  of  complexion,  and  their  heads  were  dis- 
tinctly narrow  as  a  rule.  It  is  probable  that  the 
same  race,  pushing  northwards,  occupied  the  Pelo- 
ponnese  and  other  of  the  more  accessible  parts  of 
the  Balkan  peninsula.  But  before  Homer's  day 
these  primitive  Greeks  appear  to  have  been  sub- 
jected by  the  Achaeans,  a  militant  Aryan-tongued 
race  from  the  north  of  Central  Europe,  at  least 
partly  blond,  and  probably  also  longheaded.  On 
them  followed  the  Dorians,  probably  of  Illyrian 
race,  and  broader  in  head  than  the  Achaeans  or  their 
Minoan  predecessors.  We  know  that  they  not  only 
dominated  large  portions  of  continental  Greece,  but 
also  settled  in  Crete,  where  the  Sphakiots,  a  tall 
race  inclining  to  brachykephaly,  and  occupying 
the  western  mountains,  claim  Dorian  descent. 
Similarly  in  the  eastern  horn  of  Crete  a  new  ele- 
ment coming  from  Caria  or  from  somewhere  in 
Asia  minor  where  the  fundamental  breed  of  man 
was  broadheaded,  seems  to  have  altered  the  original 
Minoan,  Lybian  or  Mediterranean  head  in  the 
direction  of  greater  width. 

The  introduction  of  Bronze  into  Europe  does  not 


9 
/ 


50      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

appear  to  have  been  accompanied  by  that  of  any  new 
element  of  population,  at  all  events  not  on  a  large 
scale.  The  Phoenicians  probably  settled  in  small 
numbers  on  the  coasts  where  they  traded,  for  ex- 
ample, in  Sardinia ;  but  except  in  Cornwall,  where 
I  am  inclined  to  think  their  type  occasionally  crops 
up,  it  is  difficult  to  distinguish  any  influence  they 
might  have  had  from  that  of  the  later  Saracens. 
The  Etruscans  had  their  own  skull  type,  in  my 
opinion  more  Semitic  than  aught  else;  but  its  in- 
fluence was,  of  course,  limited  to  a  small  area,  and 
belonged  rather  to  a  later  period.  The  one  country 
where  the  age  of  bronze  seems  really  to  have  been 
ushered  in  by  a  new  race  is  our  own,  where  barrows 
or  interments  that  yield  objects  of  bronze,  alone  or 
with  flint,  may  be  reckoned  on,  where  the  bodies 
have  not  been  cremated,  to  yield  also  short  broad 
skulls  of  a  pretty  uniform  type,  almost  identical 
with  those  which  are  found,  though  not  exclusively, 
in  certain  stone-age  interments  in  Denmark. 

When  we  were  children,  ancient  history  was  pre- 
sented to  us  in  very  compendious  form,  that  of  a 
succession  of  Empires  pictured  in  the  Book  of  the 
Prophet  Daniel.  And  the  history  of  Europe  since 
the  Bronze  Age  might  similarly  be  portrayed  as  that 
of  the  successive  swarmings  of  so  many  different 
races,  some  already  domiciled  within  its  bounds, 
others  having  their  centre  of  dispersion  outside. 

Thus  the  Phoenicians,  having  served  themselves 
heirs  to  the  maritime  power  of  the  Minoans  of 
Crete,  explored  the  coasts,  and  even  settled  here 
and  there  in  small  trading  colonies,  and  by  the  mere 


Primeval  Man — Succession  of  Races.         51 

contact  of  commerce  and  eastern  civilization  sup- 
plied a  motive  power  to  break  up  the  existing 
equilibrium.  The  subsequent  beginnings  of  the 
abortive  Carthaginian  empire  were  a  further  de- 
velopment of  Phoenician  enterprise,  but  from  what 
we  know  of  their  mode  of  warfare,  their  employ- 
'ment  of  mercenaries,  etc.,  it  is  not  likely  that  much 
of  their  blood  was  left  to  run  into  the  veins  even  of 
the  Sicilians  and  Sardinians,  where,  if  anywhere,  we 
should  seek  it.  Collignon  says  he  cannot  find  it  in 
Tunis,  where  one  would  perhaps  have  expected  it  to 
be  strongest. 

Next  come  the  palmy  days  of  the  Greeks,  even 
then  a  mingled  strain,  of  which  the  ruling  element 
seems  to  have  been  longheaded  and  largely  blond, 
while  the  subordinate  ones  may  have  been  dark.  I 
do  not  quite  hold  with  Ingoldsby — 

"  These  well-booted  Greeks, 
Their  Egyptian  descent  was  a  question  of  weeks," 

but  think  it  likely  that  the  intercourse  between 
Greece  and  Egypt  was  not  wholly  one-sided.    An         q 
lUyrian  element  is  certain;  a  Turanian  one  prob- 
able. 

The  Greeks  appear  to  have  been,  in  their  best 
days,  an  extremely  prolific  race,  so  much  so  that 
they  were  able  within  a  moderate  number  of  gener- 
ations to  Hellenize  the  coasts  of  Sicily  and  Lower 
Italy  (Magna  Graecia)  as  well  as  the  Ionian  and 
neighbouring  coasts  of  Asia,  and  those  of  Gyrene 
and  of  the  Cimmerian  Bosphorus. 

Of  the  spread  of  the  Kelts  we  know  very  much 


52      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

less :  in  the  first  place,  we  hardly  know  how  to  call 
the  wandering  mercenary  warriors  who  were  the 
terror  of  the  civilized  south;  I  just  now  said  "Kelts," 
but  will  amend  the  word,  and  say  "Gauls"  instead. 
For  at  some  period  unknown  the  longheads  of  the 
north-east  would  seem  to  have  avenged  their  long- 
headed brethren,  the  men  of  Cro-magnon  and  the 
cavern  of  L'Homme  Mort,  and  their  descendants,  by 
conquering  in  turn  their  brachykephalic  conquerors. 
And  whereas  for  a  great  many  centuries  the  descen- 
dants of  these  brachykephali  are  known  to  have 
been  brown  of  hair  and  skin,  and  whereas  the 
Romans  describe  as  blond  the  Gallic  invaders  of 
Italy  and  even  of  Galatia;  it  is  perhaps  easiest  to 
suppose  that  they  described  the  military  aristocracy 
or  caste,  and  that  these,  in  distant  migrations  at 
least,  did  not  encumber  themselves  largely  with  an 
accompaniment  of  serfs.  Anyhow,  the  skulls  found 
at  the  celebrated  station  of  Hallstadt  in  Southern 
Austria,  the  rich  concomitants  of  which  are  gener- 
ally believed  to  indicate  a  Keltic  civilization,  and 
to  date  from  many  centuries  before  Christ — these 
skulls  are  long  and  might  be  Galatic,  Belgic,or  even 
-w  Germanic,  say  some  German  authorities.     Further 

y^  down  the  Danube  we  find,  in  Alexander  the  Great's 

time,  for  example,  tribes  said  to  be  Gaulish  and  bear- 
ing Keltic  names,  as  the  Skordiski  and  T  auriski ; 
and  some  other  tall  red-haired  warriors  further  to 
the  north-east,  such  as  the  Bastarnae,  though  prob- 
ably German,  may  have  been  Galatic.  To  use  an 
argument  frequently  employed  about  the  Aryan 
question,  it  seems  much  more  easy  to  derive  the 


Primeval  Man— Succession  of  Races.         53 

Skordiski  and  their  neighbours  from  Gaul  than  the 
Gauls  from  them ;  and  then  the  universal  consent 
of  the  old  historians  went  that  way.  It  would  seem, 
however,  that  even  before  the  Gauls  occupied  or 
dominated  Transalpine  Gaul,  they  were  seated  in 
parts  of  what  we  now  call  Germany,  and  closely  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  some  of  the  true  Germans : 
the  reasons  for  believing  this  are  derived  partly 
from  resemblances  of  language  and  partly  from  the 
minute  topography  of  modern  Germany;  the  ground 
plan  of  the  ancient  Keltic  and  Germanic  village 
having  been  different,  and  this  difference  having 
left  its  mark. 

The  next  great  power  to  rise  on  the  ruins  of  the 
Etruscan  and  Carthaginian,  and  Greek  and  Gallic, 
was,  of  course,  the  Roman.  I  have  only  to  do  with 
the  results  on  physical  anthropology,  of  its  con- 
quests and  colonisations,  but  these  were  no  doubt 
great.  The  Roma»ns  seem  to  have  multiplied  enor- 
mously during  the  growth  of  their  power,  much  as 
the  Greeks  had  done  at  the  same  stage ;  moreover, 
their  veteran  armies,  which  were  employed  for 
colonisation,  so  far  as  they  were  not  Roman  were  at 
least  Italian,  until  the  culmination  of  their  power. 
The  rule  is  that  an  anthropological  type  once  in 
possession  of  the  ground  is  never  wholly  dispossessed 
or  extirpated.  "  They  beheaded,"  said  to  me  the 
great  Broca,  "a  score  or  two  of  the  leading  men,  and 
called  it  exterminating  a  tribe."  Still,  Caesar  gives 
us  to  understand  (and  he  was  a  more  humane  con- 
queror than  some  of  them)  that  he  did  his  worst 
towards  the  destruction  of  some  tribes.     Thus,  he 


54      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

says,  he  sold  into  slavery  the  whole  survivors  of  the 
Veneti;  but  probably  many  of  these  enslaved  people 
would  be  purchased  and  retained  by  the  new  pos- 
sessors of  the  lands;  besides,  most  countries  have 
about  them  a  little  of  the  quality  of  Lome,  which 
the  Highland  freebooter  found  was  "  as  ill  to  harry 
as  it  was  to  pike  a  sheep's  neck;"  and  there  is 
reason  to  think  there  are  still  Veneti  in  Morbihan.^ 

The  most  important  piece  of  evidence,  where- 
with I  am  acquainted,  to  the  permanence  of  Latin 
colonisation  is  the  following.  The  Romans  are  said 
by  Livy  to  have  transported  40,000  Ligurians,  with 
their  families  into  the  vacant  tracts  of  Samnium, 
and  to  have  filled  up  their  places  with  colonists. 
Now,  the  Ligurians  were  believed,  mainly  on  the 
authority  and  evidence  of  Nicolucci,  to  have  been 
strongly  brachykephalic,  as  the  Piedmontese  are  to 
this  day ;  whereas  the  Romans  were  mesokephalic 
as  a  rule,  with  indices  of  breadth  below  80,  and  the 
modern  Roman  skulls  are  just  what  the  old  ones 
were. 

But  the  modern  inhabitants  of  the  Ligurian  coast, 
from  Savona  to  Lucca,  are  mesokephalic,  and  have 
narrower  heads  than  any  other  people  in  Northern 
Italy,  as  Ridolfo  Livy  has  shewn.  I  can  see  two 
other  possible  explanations  of  this  fact,  but  the  one 
I  have  suggested  (colonization  from  Southern  or 
Middle  Italy)  seems  the  easiest. 

The  frequently  dark  complexions  of  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  old  Roman  cities  on  the  Rhine  may 

^  Topinard's  statistics  of  colour  point  that  way. 


Primeval  Man — Succession  of  Races.         55 

possibly  be  derived  partly  from  old  Italian  colonisa- 
tion. In  the  later  ages  of  the  Roman  power,  when 
the  soldiery  were  gathered  from  all  the  subject 
nations  fit  for  service,  colonisation  meant  the  mix- 
ing of  one  nationality  with  another  on  a  very  small 
scale.  Minute  enquiry  might  very  probably,  in 
some  instances,  detect  permanent  results,  but  I  am 
not  aware  of  any;  and  where  the  change  was  a 
violent  one  in  respect  of  climate,  such  as  that  from 
Mauritania  or  Dalmatia  to  Britain,  the  descendants 
of  the  colonists  may  have  gradually  dwindled  away. 
The  next  race  to  rise  into  importance  was  the 
Teutonic ;  and  its  migrations,  when  it  had  once 
begun  to  overcome  the  resistance  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  were  on  an  enormous  scale,  well  deserving 
the  name  the  Germans  give  to  them — the  Wander- 
ing of  the  Peoples.  Here,  again,  the  pressure  of  an 
increasing  population  had  something  to  do  with  the 
movement,  yet  not  everything,  for  many  of  the 
tribes  appear  to  have  abandoned  their  previous  ter- 
ritories en  masse ;  ^  but  Germany  was  not  at  that 
time  able  to  support  a  very  large  population.  The 
net  result  of  all  the  struggles  of  the  fifth  and  sixth 
century  was  greatly  to  abridge  the  area  occupied 
by  the  German  language  and,  probably,  the  area  in 
which  the  German  physical  type,  the  Graverow 
type,  preponderated.  More  was  abandoned  on  the 
east  than  was  gained  in  the  west  and  south.  The 
Franks  were  comparatively  few    in    number   and 


^  Thus  the  Angles,  according  to  Bede,  and  the  Saxons  who  accom- 
panied the  Lombards  to  Italy. 


56      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

spread  over  a  large  area  peopled  by  subject  aliens. 
Nor  was  the  case  very  much  different  with  the 
Visigoths  and  Longobards :  the  numbers  of  the 
former  were,  I  have  no  doubt,  greatly  exaggerated, 
nor  do  I  believe  that  Lombardy  before  its  conquest 
by  Alboin  was  so  thoroughly  depopulated  as  Ridge- 
way  thinks.  Otherwise  the  Longobards  would  have 
retained  their  language,  and  a  majority,  instead  of 
a  minority,  would  have  enjoyed  the  privileges  of 
Longobardic  law.  The  Burgundians  may  have  been 
a  little  more  numerous  in  proportion  to  their  sub- 
jects ;  but  they  were  content  with  one-third  of  the 
land,  which  may  fairly  be  taken  as  proof  that  the 
Gallorom-ans  very  largely  outnumbered  them.  In 
the  result  the  Burgundians  soon  lost  their  language; 
their  well-defined  form  of  head,  which  was  long, 
with  a  breadth  index  of  about  74  or  75,  and  very 
similar  to  that  of  the  Anglo-Saxon,  has  apparently 
disappeared,  the  heads  in  modern  Burgundy  and 
Franche  Comte  being  extremely  broad;  but  their 
fair  complexion  is  still  conspicuous;  and  whereas 
Sidonius  ApoUinaris  talked  of  them  as  "  greasy 
sevenfoot  giants,"  Franche  Comte  still  supplies  the 
French  army  with  its  tallest  grenadiers. 

But  the  whole  south-western  frontier  of  the 
German  language  seems  to  have  been  really  ad- 
vanced, the  Saxons,  Frisians,  and  Salian  Franks 
having  occupied  Flanders  and  Brabant,  the  Ripu- 
arian  Franks  the  right  and  left  banks  of  the  Middle 
Rhine  and  the  Moselle,  the  Alemanni  Alsace, 
Swabia,  and  after  Swabia  North-eastern  and  Cen- 
tral   Switzerland,  and  the  Marcomanni  (probably) 


Primeval  Man — Succession  of  Races.         57 

Bavaria.  In  all  these  cases  the  new  acquisitions 
were  conterminous  with  the  old  holdings;  and  in 
some  of  them  there  is  more  or  less  reason  to  think 
that  the  invaders  re-occupied  ground  which  had 
been  won  by  the  Romans  from  their  own  kindred : 
I  have  said  more  or  less  reason — I  should  myself  say 
less  rather  than  more.  The  result  is  that  Flanders 
and  most  of  Brabant  are  thoroughly  Germanic — the 
Electorates  (Treves,  Cologne,  and  Mayence)  rather 
less  so,  at  least  in  their  western  parts;  Alsace, 
Swabia,  Bavaria,  and  Central  Switzerland  more 
German  than  otherwise  in  colour,  but  in  headform 
more  Keltic  or  Rhoetian. 

But  the  greatest  of  the  German  conquests,  from 
the  racial  point  of  view,  was  that  of  our  own  country 
(or  shall  we  say  of  Eastern  Britain),  which  was 
largely  Saxonised  in  blood  as  well  as  in  language 
and  social  state ;  while  the  western  parts  of  the 
British  Isles,  including  Ireland,  have  been  Saxonised, 
if  at  all,  more  by  infection  and  contact  than  by 
change  of  blood. 

As  a  second  wave  of  Teutonic  conquest,  we  may 
reckon  the  Scandinavian,  which,  however,  did  not 
begin  until  long  after  the  Volkswanderung  of  the 
Germans  themselves  had  come  to  an  end.  Here, 
again,  the  movement  must  have  coincided  with  a 
rapid  increase  of  population;  but  it  was  too  great 
an  effort  to  continue;  and  though  it  did  not  lead 
to  an  actual  curtailment  of  the  area  of  the  stock 
and  language  as  the  Volkswanderung  did,  it  ended 
in  such  thorough  exhaustion  of  the  parent  stock 
that  it  continued  to  be  of  little  importance  for  cen- 
5 


58      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

turies.  Iceland,  Shetland,  Orkney,  Caithness,  were 
all  that  the  movement  added  to  the  Scandinavian 
language  area,  but  in  many  other  parts  of  these 
islands  it  left  its  mark  more  or  less  plainly  on 
the  physical  type ;  so  it  was  in  the  Hebrides, 
especially  in  the  Lews,  m  Man,  in  Cumberland  and 
Westmoreland,  and  the  West  Border,  very  strongly ; 
in  Yorkshire,  and  along  the  east  coast  of  Scotland, 
in  Lincolnshire,  Nottinghamshire,  East  Norfolk  and 
adjoining  districts,  perhaps  also  in  Pembrokeshire, 
certainly  about  Wexford  and  Waterford.  On  the 
Continent  it  affected  the  coast  of  Normandy,  and 
to  a  less  degree  the  interior.  Collignon  even  thinks 
he  sees  its  traces  over  a  large  tract  of  country  on 
and  about  the  Middle  Loire ;  and  finally,  it  is  said 
to  be  visible  in  the  nobility  of  Sicily  and  Southern 
Italy. 

South  of  the  Baltic,  too,  the  Germanic  wave  of 
conquest  is  remarkable  in  having  been  double; 
several  centuries  after  the  Volkswanderung  had 
ceased,  population  growing  dense,  as  it  seems  al- 
ways to  do  in  the  early  stages  of  the  civilisation 
of  capable  races,  the  Saxons,  Frisians,  and  even  the 
Flemings,  set  themselves  to  reconquer  those  exten- 
sive territories  east  of  the  Elbe,  the  Hartz,  the 
Thuringian  mountains,  and  the  Upper  Main,  which 
they  or  their  kindred  had  relinquished  long  ago  to 
the  Wends;  and  gradually,  by  force,  fraud,  com- 
merce, or  peaceable  colonisation  of  empty  spaces, 
they  re-Germanised  pretty  thoroughly  a  large  por- 
tion of  them.  The  physical  type  of  the  tribes  they 
submerged  was  apparently  very  like  their  own,  but 


Primeval  Man — Succession  of  Races.         59 

we  must  not  forget  the  possibility  that  weak  and 
scattered  remnants  of  the  Germans  had  been  left 
behind  in  the  great  migration,  and  lost  in  the  then 
flowing  tide  of  Slavonism.      Buschan  tells  me  he 
thinks  this  a  probable  explanation  of  the  fact  that  \ 
the  Cassubians  (still  Slav  in  speech),  and  the  other  ' 
inhabitants  of  Koslin,  the  eastermost  province  of  ' 
Pomerania,  constitute  one  of  the  most  blond  areas 
of  Germany. 

Next,  after  the  great  or  earlier  Germanic  move- 
ment, and  previous  to  that  last  spoken  of,  was  the 
spread  of  Saracenic  conquest.  The  extent  of  the 
extreme  wave  of  this  is  scarcely  realised ;  not  only 
did  the  Moorish  armies  penetrate  almost  to  the 
Loire,  but  they  ascended  the  Rhone  valley,  occupied 
for  a  long  period  some  of  the  passes  of  the  high 
Alps,  possessed  Sicily,  plundered  the  coasts  of  Italy, 
and  settled  there  in  small  communities.  In  France, 
according  to  Lagneau,  they  are  thought  to  have 
settled  at  Aubusson  after  their  great  defeat  by 
Charles  Martel,  and  perhaps  made  there  the  first 
carpet  in  Europe.^ 

The  change  they  wrought  in  the  physique  of  the 
Spanish  population  was  probably  not  very  great. 
The  Semitic  element  in  them  was  not  altogether 
new  to  the  coasts,  at  least,  of  Spain,  and  the  Berber 
element  was  identical,  or  nearly  so,  with  the  primi- 
tive Iberian. 

Perhaps  the  expansion  of  the  Slavs  should  have 
been  mentioned  before  that  of   the  Saracens;    it 

'  For  *'  Africa  begins  at  the  Pyrenees,"  as  Dumas  said. 


60      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

began  earlier,  but  continued  longer  and  later,  and, 
like  that  of  the  Germans,  after  a  considerable  inter- 
ruption, in  this  case  owing  to  the  intercalation  of 
the  Tartar  dominion,  it  recommenced,  to  continue 
almost  to  our  own  day.  Poland,^  and  the  country 
between  the  Carpathians  and  the  Dnieper,  seem  to 
have  been  the  original  occupation  of  the  Slavs; 
thence,  on  the  westward  movement  of  the  Germans, 
they  spread  ocross  the  Oder  and  the  Elbe  and  to 
the  mouths  of  the  Vistula ;  they  occupied  the  vacant 
Bohemia,  and  passed  over  Pannonia  and  lUyria  to 
the  Adriatic,  and  either  by  themselves,  or  under 
Bulgarian  dominion,  occupied  also  more  or  less 
completely  almost  the  whole  of  the  Balkan  penin- 
sula. By  about  the  ninth  century,  spreading  over 
or  among  the  Finnish  tribes,  they  had  established 
themselves  at  Novgorod,  long  the  chief  seat  of 
their  power  and  commerce,  and  had  apparently 
penetrated  also  to  the  Oka  and  the  Upper  Volga. 
They  were  not  a  military  people,  but  a  ruling 
and  fighting  case  was  supplied  to  them  by  the 
Varangans  from  Scandinavia.  Thereafter  their 
northward  expansion  continued  uninterruptedly ; 
that  to  the  south-east,  however,  was  first  checked 
and  then  completely  arrested  by  the  advent  and  rise 
to  power  of  successive  hordes  of  Turks,  of  which 
the  latest  included  the  Mongols  of  Batu  Khan. 
Meanwhile  the  Germans  re-occupied,  as  was  just 
now  mentioned,  most  of  the  territory  which  had 


'  The  Lygii,  whom  Tacitus  describes  as  Germans,  were  pretty  cer- 
tainly the  Lekhs  (Poles).   This  was  one  of  Latham's  happy  conjectures. 


Primeval  Man — Succession  of  Races.         61 

once  been  their  own  ;  the  settlement  of  the  Magyars, 
and  later  the  growth  of  the  Roumans,  cut  off  the 
southern  division  of  the  Slavs  from  the  northern, 
and  the  former  were  somewhat  circumscribed  by 
the  arrival  of  the  Ottomans,  and  by  the  revival  of 
the  Greeks  and  Albanians. 

The  tide  of  conquest  to  which  I  come  last,  con- 
sisted of  many  waves,  one  of  which,  indeed,  was 
coeval  with  the  Volkwanderung ;  nay,  it  may  be 
that  the  very  first  such  wave  was  much  earlier  even 
than  that.  It  is  very  difficult  to  say  when  the  first 
tribe  of  Turkish  race  entered  Europe.  Who  or  what 
were  the  Etruscans,  the  Agathyrsi,  the  Kimmerians, 
the  Scythians,  the  Sarmatians,  the  Alans .''  There 
is  not  one  of  these  nations  but  has  been  conjectured 
to  be  Turkish  by  some  one  or  other.  Were  the 
manners  and  politics  of  the  Scythians  and  Sarma- 
tians, which  have  a  very  Central-Asian  or  Turanian 
look,  the  product  of  their  life  on  the  grassy  steppes 
of  Southern  Russia?  or  had  they  brought  them 
ready-made  from  Turkestan?  We  do  not  know. 
I  will  return  to  the  Scythians  in  a  future  lecture. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  fourth  century  appeared 
the  Huns,  Mongoloid  in  type  and  in  mode  of  life, 
whatever  they  were  in  tongue  and  in  blood.  That 
they  had  much  to  do  with  the  inception  of  the 
Volkswanderung  is  clear;  the  terror  of  them  drove 
the  Visigoths  across  the  Danube,  perhaps  the  Sueves 
and  Alans  across  the  Rhine,  nay,  possibly,  as  the 
Quaens  fled  before  the  alarm  of  the  Tartars  into 
Norway,  so  may  the  Angles  have  fled  before  that  of 
Huns  into  England.    When  their  power  collapsed 


62      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

they  were  not  extinguished :  the  next  wave  of 
nomads,  the  Avars,  incorporated  most  of  them. 
The  Avars,  if  not  entirely  Turkish,  were  at  least 
Turanian.  Then  followed  the  Bulgarians,  a  Finnish 
race  from  the  Volga,  and  settled  among  and  ruled 
over  the  Southern  Slavs;  but  some  of  them  wan- 
dered as  far  as  South  Italy.  Next  the  Hungarians, 
the  Magyars,  from  the  same  neighbourhood,  but 
mixed  somewhat  with  Turkish  blood,  who,  settling 
in  Hungary,  no  doubt  incorporated  the  relics  of  the 
Avars.  Then  the  Khazars,  Turks  of  a  high  type, 
that  is,  may  be,  with  an  Aryan  admixture.  Then 
the  Patsinaks,  Petchenegs,  or  Besses,  Turks  of  a 
lower  civilization,  who  by  much  etymological  tor- 
ture are  found  to  have  given  name  to  Bessarabia. 
Then  the  Polovtsi  or  Khomans,  also  undoubted 
Turks,  who  settled  on  the  Dnieper,  so  far  as  nomads 
could  settle;  and  after  them  the  most  terrible  of  all, 
the  so  miscalled  Tartars,  a  mass  of  broken  Turkish 
tribes  with  a  nucleus  of  veritable  Mongols,  who 
destroyed  or  incorporated  all  the  earlier  Turkish 
colonists  of  southern  Russia,  and,  if  half  that  is  told 
of  them  is  to  be  believed,  went  nigh  to  destroying 
the  Russians,  Poles,  and  Hungarians. 

With  the  exception  of  the  Ottoman  Turks,  who 
have  been  a  great  power  in  Europe,  but  scarcely 
anywhere,  except  in  Eastern  Bulgaria,  in  Thessaly, 
in  some  parts  of  Roumelia,  and  in  a  few  large 
towns,  a  considerable  element  in  the  population, 
and  the  Gypsies,  an  Upper  Indian  tribe  of  totally 
different  type  from  the  Turks  or  Finns,  in  fact 
more  Aryan  than  aught  else,  there  have  been  no 


Primeval  Man — Succession  of  Races.         63 

more  invasions  from  Asia  since  that  of  Batu  Khan ; 
for  Tamerlane's  victorious  campaigns  against  Tok- 
tamish,  Khan  of  the  Golden  Horde,  and  Lord  of 
Russia,  were  nothing  but  campaigns,  and  led  to 
no  settlement.  The  tide  has  long  been  running 
eastward :  the  Turanian  flood  has  been  ebbing ; 
Aryan  and  Finnish  islands  have  appeared  among  its 
receding  waves,  and  have  gradually  coalesced  until 
only  a  few  pools  are  left  here  and  there.  The 
Tartars  of  Kasan  and  of  the  Crimea,  the  few  that 
are  left,  are  the  most  civilised  peasantry  in  Russia ; 
and  the  very  fine  type  of  the  Roumelian  Osmanli  is 
rapidly  dwindling  away.      / 


LECTURE    III. 


RUSSIA  AND  THE  BALKAN  PENINSULA. 

Russia — The  Scythians — Spread  of  the  Slavs — Physical  characters 
of  the  Finns — The  Marians — The  Mongol  invasion — Compo- 
sition of  the  modern  Russian  people — The  Lithuanians — Ugrian 
and  Tartar  tribes — The  ancient  occupants  of  the  Balkan  pen- 
insula— The  Hellenes — Modern  descendants  of  the  Thraciana 
and  Illyrians.  , 

WE  have  not  much  material  of  very  early  dates 
from  Russia ;  the  earliest  probably  comes 
from  the  kitchen-middens  on  the  Baltic,  whence 
some  every  short  and  broad  skulls  are  reported  to 
have  been  gotten. 

Thus  we  have  in  Russia  something  like  the  same 
difficulty  that  we  have  in  the  west.  Long-heads — 
long  and  very  narrow — may  have  prevailed ;  but 
short  ones  did  occur,  and  were  not  merely  the  pro- 
duct of  rickets  or  hydrocephalus,  but  indicate  the 
existence  of  a  brachykephalic  race  or  race  element. 
Almost  all  parts  of  Russia  abound  with  kurgans  or 
tumuli  of  different  kinds,  mostly  sepulchral.  Of 
these  probably  the  oldest  are  in  the  south,  and  are 
supposed  to  belong  to  the  Scythian  period.  The 
few  skulls  got  from  them  are  mostly  long,  but  in 
the  rich  barrow-tomb  of  a  Scythian  king,  described 
by  Von  Baer,  the  heads  which  he  took  to  belong 
to  the  ruling  race  yielded  an  average  index  of  81. 


Russia  and  the  Balkan  Peninsula.  65 

The  philological  evidence  is  thought  to  point 
rather  to  the  Iranian  affinity  of  the  Scythians;  but 
the  evidence  of  these  skulls,  and  that  given  by  Hip- 
pocrates as  to  their  physique,  in  conjunction  with 
their  character  and  history,  make  me  think  that 
they  were  Turanian.  And  I  must  plead  guilty  to 
the  heresy,  in  spite  of  Professor  Rhys,  of  believing 
the  Kimmerians,  the  sons  of  Gomer,  to  have  been 
either  Kelts  or  Gauls,  not  unrelated  to  the  Kymri 
of  Wales  and  to  our  own  Strath-clyde  Welshmen. 

The  growth  of  the  broad-headed  element  is  shown 
in  the  following  table  by  Bogdanof ;  it  relates  to  the 
Government  of  Kiev : — 

D'lliclio.     Mesc.       Bnichj'. 

Scytho-Sarmatian  Period,  6  11 

Early  Slavish  Period,  -      -        9  2  7 

9th  to  18th  Century,    -      -      10  6  6 

Here  the  early  population,  which  may  have  been 
Finnish,  Germanic,  Lithuanian,  Sarmatic— -who  can 
tell  .'* — is  replaced  by  the  Slavs  with  their  moderately 
broad  heads ;  but  once  established,  the  Slavish  type 
does  not  seem  to  have  varied  much.  The  anthro- 
pological history  of  Russia,  from,  say  A.D.  4  or  5G0 
up  to  1200,  may  be  summed  up  thus :  1,  Emigration  or 
vanishing  of  Germanic  and  Sarmatic  tribes,  Goths, 
Alans,  perhaps  Rhoxalani ;  2,  Spread  of  the  Slavs 
from  their  old  centre,  supposed  to  have  been  Poland, 
Galicia,  Volhynia,  over  all  Western,  Central,  and 
North-western  Russia,  destroying  or  rather  incor- 
porating the  numerous  Finnish  tribes  who  were 
their  predecessors,  or  in  some  instances  pushing 
them  out  of  their  old  seats ;  whence,  3rd,  Migration 


66      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

of  some  of  the  Finns  towards  the  west,  those  of  the 
Tavistian  section,  whose  modern  descendants  are 
mostly  fair  and  with  moderate  breadth -indices, 
moving  into  Finland  to  mix  with  the  Swedes,  or 
into  Esthonia,  whence  they  expelled  the  Letts,  a 
Lithuanic,  Aryan  people — those  of  the  Karelian 
division,  generally  darker  in  hair,  and  broader  in 
head,  also  moving  westwards,  but  in  the  rear  of 
their  brethren. 

Nothing  is  more  calculated  to  throw  doubt  on 
the  extremely  high  valuation  of  skull-breadth  as  an 
indication  of  race,  than  the  phenomena  of  that  kind 
in  the  Finnish  tribes.  For  there  is  a  certain  amount 
of  general  physical  resemblance  among  them  all: 
it  is  not  merely  that  their  languages  are  related; 
yet  nevertheless  they  vary  extremely  in  index  of 
breadth ;  thus  the  Lapps  stand  at  about  84*7  (Hallsten 
says  86'5,  Von  der  Horck,  86'5),  the  Chuds  at  833, 
the  Finns  of  Karelia  about  82,  of  Tavastland,  80,^ 
which  is  also  that  of  some  skulls  from  ancient 
Kurgans  at  Saivatapala;  the  Esths  stand  about  78; 
the  Liefs,  their  nearest  kindred,  the  same ;  the  Vesses, 
and  Vots,  80,  according  to  Mainow,  but  Iwanowski 
makes  the  heads  of  the  latter  rather  longer.  The 
same  kind  of  facts  are  encountered  among  the 
Oriental  Finns,  but  the  details  of  these  may  as 
well  be  deferred  until  after  the  consideration  of 
the  great  Tartar  invasion,  which  complicated  the 
anthropology  of  eastern  Russia  considerably.  The 
facial  physiognomy  seems  to  be  more  characteristic 

'See  Gustav  Retzius  as  to  the  Finlanders. 


Russia  and  the  Balkan  Peninsula.  67 

than  the  cranial.  The  skull  usually  gives  the  im- 
pression of  squareness,  whether  viewed  from  above 
or  from  behind,  but  in  some  tribes,  and  particularly 
in  the  Bulgarians,  it  may  be  styled  cylindrical.  The 
face  is  broad  in  proportion  to  its  length,  from  the 
development  of  the  cheekbones;  the  brows  level 
and  but  little  prominent,  the  orbital  openings  wide 
and  low,  the  eyes  narrow  and  often  a  little  obliquely 
set,  the  nose  straight  or  hollow  and  prominent  at 
the  tip  if  anywhere.  These  points  seem  to  be  com- 
mon to  most  if  not  all  of  the  Finnish  or  Ugrian 
tribes ;  they  appear,  for  example,  in  the  Mordwins, 
and  not  unfrequently  in  the  Bulgarians,  though 
these  last  are  much  mixed  with  Turkish  as  well  as 
still  more  largely  with  Slavic  blood. 

Coloration  varies  in  all  these  tribes.  In  the 
Esthonians  proper  the  hair  is  said  to  be  generally 
yellow,  or  yellowish  brown,  and  straight ;  this  is  a 
race-character.  The  temperament  seems  to  be  a 
mixture  of  the  lymphatic  and  melancholic;  Von 
Baer  remarks  that  some  are  truly  melancholic,  and 
that  these  are  apt  to  have  black  hair ;  they  are  said, 
accordingly,  to  be  patient,  slow  to  anger,  self- 
restrained,  but  persevering,  and  formidable  when 
once  roused.  All  this  again  seems  to  be  common  to 
almost  all  the  Ugrian  race. 

The  Merians,  who  of  all  the  greater  Ugrian 
tribes  we  know,  were  earliest  and  most  completely 
Russianized,  though  I  have  little  doubt  that  others 
had  disappeared  so  early  that  their  very  names  had 
been  lost — the  Merians  who  inhabited  the  central 
provinces   around    Moscow    have    been    minutely 


68      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

studied  as  to  their  ethnology,  their  arts  and  modes 
of  life,  by  Count  Uvarof,  who  opened  an  immense 
number  of  their  sepulchral  barrows  or  kurgans. 
Their  name  is  not  mentioned  in  history  later  than 
A.D.  907,  and  doubtless  they  were  already  by  that 
time  much  mixed  with  Russians.  Many  localities 
retain  the  names  they  gave,  much,  let  us  say,  as 
localities  in  Aberdeenshire  or  Fife  retain  their  old 
Keltic  names;  this  permanence  of  names  is  more 
likely  to  occur  where  the  relations  between  the 
waxing  and  the  waning  race  have  been  friendly  on 
the  whole,  as  was  probably  the  case  between  the 
Merians  and  the  Russians.  For  though  the  Merians 
were  tall  and  strong  (their  stature  was  from  5ft.  6in. 
to  5ft.  lOin.),  they  were  a  pacific  people,  and  though 
their  civilization  was  by  no  means  of  low  type, 
they  were  poor.  They  had  ornaments  of  bronze 
and  silver,  however,  and  seem  to  have  acquired 
pearl,  silk,  and  fine  cloth,  by  trade  with  the  Arabs 
and  Bulgarians.  The  rite  of  Sutti,  which  Ibn 
Foslan,  who  travelled  among  them  in  921,  and  saw 
the  obsequies  of  a  prince,  has  described,  may  have 
belonged  to  them  as  well  as  to  the  Slavs. 

As  they  were  taller  than  the  modern  population, 
so  were  they  longer-headed,  with  an  index  of 
breadth  varying  a  good  deal,  from  65  upwards,  but 
averaging  perhaps  73  or  74,  which  is  less  than  that 
of  any  existing  Finnish  tribe.  Their  hair  was  rather 
dark  than  light  brown,  if  we  may  trust  to  the  colour 
of  such  as  is  found  in  the  graves. 

Further  north  also  the  process  of  Russification 
was  always  going  on.   The  populations  of  Novgorod 


Russia  and  the  Balkan  Peninsula.  69 

and  Pskov,  energized  by  a  cross  of  Swedish  blood 
through  the  Varangians,  spread  their  colonies 
among  the  Finns  of  the  north  as  far  as  Archangel 
and  the  Petchora.  Howorth  thinks  the  Votiaks  or 
Vod  were  pushed  by  them  eastwards  to  their 
present  seats  in  Viatka,  much  as  the  Esths  were 
driven  westward  (the  Letts  to  this  day  call  the 
Esths  "Iggauns,"  "the  expelled  ones").^  The  sug- 
gestion that  the  Vods  were  the  Budini  (Vodini),  of 
the  Greeks  seems  inevitable.  For  the  Budini  were 
noted  for  their  red  hair,  and  the  modern  Votiaks 
are  among  the  reddest  or  most  rufous  of  men  ;  they 
are  commonly  said  to  be  all  redhaired,  but  Malijew's 
figures  do  not  bear  out  this  extreme  statement.  He 
gives  the  following  percentages  —  red  hair,  11; 
flaxen,  7;  light  brown,  15;  brown,  29;  dark  brown, 
32;  black,  2;  grey,  4.  But  no  less  than  47  had  red 
beards.  They  have  rather  broad  heads  (79'8),  are 
rather  short  and  thick  set  (5ft.  4iin.),  their  eyes  are 
oftener  blue  or  grey  than  brown.  On  the  whole, 
except  for  the  comparative  deficiency  of  black  hair 
among  them,  their  colours  are  not  very  unlike 
those  of  the  people  of  Athol  and  Mar,  where  red 
hair  is  more  abundant  than  in  any  other  part  of 
Britain. 

The  Votiaks  are  not  far  behind  in  civilization. 
They  are  said  to  have  learned  much  from  the 
Tartars,  but  not  to  have  mixed  blood  with  them, 
though  these  same  irrepressible  invaders  penetrated 


'  It  is  said,  however,  that  the  Novgorodians  found  the  Votiaks  in 
Viatka  in  the  twelfth  century. 


70      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

even    beyond    them,   to    their    kindred    tribe,  the 
Voguls  in  the  Ural  mountains. 

The  dreadful  energy  and  persistence  of  these 
Mongols  in  their  two  great  invasions  of  Russia  in 
1237  and  1239,  is  as  impressive  as  their  atrocious 
cruelty  and  destructiveness.  Of  all  the  settled 
portions  of  the  country,  only  Novgorod  and  the 
north-west  escaped,  owing  to  a  sudden  thaw  ren- 
dering the  previously  frozen  ground  absolutely 
impracticable.  City  after  city  was  taken,  sacked, 
burned,  and  its  inhabitants  massacred;  to  submit 
was  usually  death,  to  attempt  resistance  was  worse. 
Reading  the  story  in  the  pages  of  Howorth  or 
Karamsin,  one  compares  it  with  that  of  Khorassan, 
which  was  the  richest  and  most  civilized  province 
of  Western  Asia  before  the  Mongols  entered  it,  but 
which  they  left  a  desolate  wilderness,  a  condition 
from  which  it  has  never  fully  recovered.  But  one 
may  better  compare  the  ravages  of  the  Mongols  in 
Russia  to  those  of  the  Danes  in  Britain.  Though 
the  latter  were  less  destructive,  they  achieved  their 
success  owing  very  much  to  the  same  causes,  the 
greater  hardihood  of  their  men,  their  superiority 
in  weapons  and  generalship,  the  subjection  of  the 
victims  to  an  emasculating  form  of  religion,  and 
(this  was  more  marked  in  Russia)  the  disuse  of  arms 
by  the  inferior  classes.  If  the  Scotch  had  lagged 
behind  in  civilization,  such  as  civilization  was  at 
the  period  of  our  Danish  invasions,  they  were 
perhaps  on  that  very  account  better  able  to  resist 
a  barbarian  invader  than  were  the  Saxon  English. 
To  show  how  great  was  the  fear  of  the  Tartars 


Russia  and  the  Balkan  Peninsula.  71 

even  in  remote  countries,  we  may  quote  Gibbon, 
cited  by  Howorth,  who  says  tliat  through  fear  of 
them  the  fishermen  of  Sweden  and  Frisia  failed, 
in  1238,  to  attend  the  herring  fishery  on  the  British 
coast ;  and  that  from  this  cause  herrings  were  dear. 

It  was  not  only  the  Slavic  inhabitants  of  Russia 
that  were  swept  with  the  besom  of  destruction. 
Bolgari,  the  old  commercial  mart  of  Eastern  Russia, 
the  metropolis  of  Old  Bulgaria,  the  region  whence 
had  issued  both  the  Magyars  and  the  Bulgars  of  the 
Danube,  was  utterly  destroyed.  The  people  there- 
about had  probably  been  a  mixture  of  the  two 
Finnish  types  already  spoken  of,  of  which  the  one 
is  represented  by  the  Esthonians,  the  other,  darker 
and  with  broader  head,  by  the  Tchuds ;  but  ancient 
skulls  have  been  little  sought  for  there.  The  rem- 
nants of  the  earlier  Turkish  races  in  the  south  were 
partly  incorporated :  others,  as  the  Khomans,  fled 
westwards,  and  were  received  in  Hungary,  where 
their  descendants  still  remain,  but  do  not  exhibit 
their  ancient  Turkish  breadth  of  head:  the  cause 
of  the  change  was  probably  their  long  sojourn  in 
Little  Russia,  where  the  prehistoric  population, 
from  the  time  of  the  Scythians,  had  been  mainly 
long-headed,  and  may  have  been  incorporated. 

The  Mongols  were  of  course  but  a  minority,  and 
a  rather  small  minority,  in  the  great  Golden  Horde, 
the  majority  of  which  was  composed  of  the  debris 
of  various  Turkish  tribes,  more  or  less  mixed  with 
those  of  conquered  nations,  Persians,  Circassians, 
Alans,  and  so  forth.  There  was  at  least  one 
Englishman  in  Batu  Khan's  army.     The  Mongol 


72      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

and  Turkish  types  are  well  known,  and  were 
probably  originally  identical  or  nearly  so;  but  the 
Turks,  lying  to  the  west  of  the  Mongols,  came 
earlier  into  contact  with  the  Iranian  nations,  and 
by  mixture  with  them  beautified  their  own  type. 
The  original  one,  which  may  be  called  Turanian, 
though  some  anthropologists  look  on  it  as  an 
infantine  form  arrested,  is  free  from  most  of  the 
points  to  which  Schaaffhausen  objects  as  primitive 
or  savage;  it  is  large  and  capacious,  without  large 
frontal  sinuses  or  protuberant  occiput  or  projecting 
jaws.  As  a  rule,  no  doubt  these  people  are  of  low 
intellectual  power;  but  some  of  their  early  monarchs 
were  able  men.  There  are  curious  legends  about 
the  origin  of  Jinghiz  Khan's  family  from  a  super- 
natural ancestor,  who  is  represented  as  fair  and 
blue-eyed;  but  whether  this  is  an  astronomical 
myth,  or  whether  it  points  to  early  admixture  of 
the  ruling  stock  with  a  higher  race,  I  will  not 
hazard  an  opinion. 

The  moral  qualities  of  the  Mongols  are  thus 
summed  up  by  a  Persian  writer,  and  could  not  be 
better  adapted  for  savage  and  irregular  warfare. 
"They  have,"  says  Vassaf,  "the  courage  of  lions, 
the  endurance  of  dogs,  the  prudence  of  cranes,  the 
cunning  of  foxes,  the  farsightedness  of  ravens,  the 
rapacity  of  wolves,  the  keenness  for  fighting  of 
cocks,  the  tenderness  for  their  offspring  of  hens 
(here  is  one  redeeming  feature),  the  wiliness  of  cats 
in  approaching,  and  the  impetuosity  of  boars  in 
overthrowing  their  prey."  \ 

During  the  decline  of  the  power  of  the  Golden  \ 


Russia  and  the  Balkan  Peninsula.  73 

Horde,  and  after  its  adherents  had  been  broken  up 
into  the  three  Khanates  of  the  Crimea,  of  the 
Nogays  and  of  Kasan,  their  incursions  continued 
exceedingly  destructive.  They  are  even  said  to 
have  carried  off,  when  they  sacked  Moscow  in  1571, 
no  less  than  800,000  captives — a  great  exaggeration 
doubtless,  but  not  without  some  foundation.  Great 
numbers  of  these  must  have  perished  on  the  journey, 
but  on  the  whole  the  Slav  element  in  the  south  and 
on  the  Volga  must  have  been  increased  in  this  way ; 
but  it  is  not  so  clear  how  it  came  to  pass  that  the 
Tartar  element  was  largely  imported  into  Great 
Russia  or  Muscovy,  which,  however,  we  shall  see, 
was  certainly  the  case. 

Since  the  capture  of  Kazan  and  the  reduction  of 
the  Crimea  to  a  Russian  province,  only  one  striking 
anthropographical  change  has  occurred,  viz.,  the 
emigration  en  masse  of  the  Kalmuks  from  the 
steppes  of  the  Lower  Volga  into  the  Chinese 
empire.  By  this  event,  the  pure  Mongol  element 
in  Europe  was  reduced  to  small  dimensions,  and 
it  is  said  that  those  who  remain  have  no  tendency 
to  increase  in  numbers. 

The  modern  population  of  Russia  proper  is  in 
overwhelming  majority  Slav,  and  mostly  falls  under 
the  great  divisions  of  Great,  Little,  and  White 
Russians — the  Little  Russians  occupying  the  regions 
east  and  west  of  the  Lower  Dnieper,  the  White 
Russians  the  Middle  Dnieper  and  Upper  Dwina, 
the  Great  Russians  the  whole  north  and  east;  but 
while  the  area  of  the  two  smaller  divisions  is 
uninterrupted,  that  of  the  larger  is  broken,  especially 


74      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

in  the  east,  by  the  territories  of  a  number  of  Finnish 
and  Turkish  tribes.  And  the  Muscovites  them- 
selves must  be  looked  upon  as  a  people  who,  how- 
ever pure  Slavs  they  may  have  been  at  their  starting 
points,  have  in  the  course  of  their  rapid  expansion 
included  and  assimilated  large  alien  populations 
similar  or  identical  with  those  which  still  remain 
recognizable,  a  people,  too,  whose  purity  of  type 
must  have  diminished  pari  passu  with  their 
advance,  just  as  the  purity  of  the  Saxo-Frisic  type 
in  Wessex  gradually  and  visibly  lessens  as  one 
travels  westward  from  Hampshire  or  Berkshire,  or 
that  of  the  Anglian  type  from  Berwickshire 
towards  Linlithgow. 

The  Tartar  element  in  the  very  purest  Great 
Russians  is  not  a  negligible  quantity.  Several  of 
the  names  for  money,  as  altun,  kopek,  several  of 
those  for  measures  of  capacity  or  weight,  as  arshin, 
kile,  aghash,  the  name  of  their  national  drink,  kwas, 
the  names  of  some  court  officials,  the  use  of  the 
word  "  Christian "  as  a  somewhat  contemptuous 
term  for  the  lower  classes,  and  many  characteristics 
in  their  habits  and  manners,  are  Tartar.  All  these 
points,  it  is  true,  do  not  prove  anything  beyond 
intercourse;  but  Von  Hammer  gives  a  list  of 
122  Russian  families  of  known  Tartar  origin. 
"Among  these,"  says  Howorth,  "are  some  of  the 
best  known  in  Russian  history."  I  may  quote 
Glinski,  Godunof,  Golovin,  Dashkof,  Narishkin, 
Opraxin,  Rostopchin,  Turgenef,  Uvarof,  the  last 
the  name  of  the  nobleman  to  whom  we  owe  so 
much  in  Merian  archaeology.    To  the  Merians,  by 


Russia  and  the  Balkan  Peninsula.  75 

the  way,  the  Russians  are  thought  to  owe  the  so- 
called  Russian  bath.  Bogdanof  thinks  that  the 
Mordwins,  one  of  the  brachykephalic  Finnish 
tribes,  whose  remains  seem  to  occur  in  ancient 
kurgans,  may  also  have  contributed  to  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Muscovite  type.  The  portraits  of 
modern  Mordwins  which  he  publishes  might  easily 
be  paralleled  in  this  country,  and  confirm  my  belief 
in  the  presence  in  these  islands,  and  particularly 
in  Scotland,  of  an  ancient  Finnish  element  of 
population. 

Be  these  things  as  they  may,  there  is  sufficient 
evidence  to  the  existence  of  a  fairly  well-defined 
and  permanent  Great-Russian  type  of  man.  As  to 
its  stability,  Taranetzky  says  that,  having  carefully 
examined  the  ancient  Slavish  skulls  disinterred  in 
Novgorod  by  Von  Wolkenstein  (which  date  from 
the  tenth  or  eleventh  century),  he  is  unable  to  find 
the  least  difference  between  them  and  those  of  the 
present  generation,  whether  in  the  measurements 
or  the  general  contour  and  aspect.  The  hair,  too, 
seems  to  have  been  of  the  prevalent  modern  colour, 
a  rather  darkish  brown. 

Taking  as  a  basis  the  very  careful  and  laborious 
memoir  of  Taranetzky,  one  might  say  that,  in  the 
portion  of  the  country  which  he  deals  with,  the 
Great-Russian  type  was  perhaps  purest  in  the 
governments  of  Twer,  Pskov,  and  Novgorod,  rather 
less  so  in  those  of  Kostroma  and  Yaroslav,  of 
Olonetz  and  Vologda  and  St.  Petersburg,  and  least 
of  all  in  the  most  remote.  Archangel.  The  stature 
is  rather  short:  calculating  from  Anuchin's  statistics, 


76      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

I  should  say  1,650  millimeters,  or  5  feet  5  inches  in 
the  adult  man.  The  eyes  are  small  and  grey,  or 
sometimes  dark;  the  hair  varies  through  different 
shades  of  brown.  The  skull  is  fairly  capacious, 
broad  (about  81),  of  good  height  (about  76),  flattened 
at  back  and  often  at  the  top,  and  on  the  whole  of 
form  between  an  ellipse  and  an  oblong  (which  I 
take  to  be  what  Taranetzky  and  Bogdanof  mean  by 
"biscuit-formed").  This  is  the  Sarmatic  form  of 
Von  Holder,  and  most  of  the  Russians  I  have  seen 
have  exhibited  it.  It  accords  well  with  the  some- 
what square  and  massive  frame.  The  frontal 
sinuses  are  little  developed ;  the  nose  is  broad  and 
often  rather  flat;  the  face  not  so  broad  in  the  pure 
type  as  where  the  Finnish  element  is  strong,  but 
with  the  same  oblong  compactness  as  the  skull. 

The  Little -Russians  (Malorussians),  every  one 
agrees,  are  different  from  the  Muscovites  in  physi- 
cal and  moral  characteristics.  Inhabiting  a  much 
richer  soil,  they  are  conspicuously  taller  than  their 
northern  kindred,  whose  struggle  for  life  is  often 
very  hard.  "  Brunette  with  black  eyes  and  an  oily 
skin,"  says  Barchewitz,  "  fond  of  greasy  feeding  and 
of  music."  Their  country  has  been  the  camping- 
ground  of  so  many  and  so  diverse  nations  and  races, 
that  it  would  be  useless  to  discuss  the  derivation  of 
their  types,  which  are  probably  numerous.  The 
White  Russians  border  on  the  Lithuanians  and 
Poles,  and  have  probably  mixed  with  both,  and 
perhaps  the  blond  element  in  them  has  thus  been 
strengthened;  but  they  inhabit  the  very  swampy 
country  about  the  Dnieper,  the  Prypek,  and  the 


Russia  and  the  Balkan  Peninsula.  11 

Beresina,  a  country  where  it  is  said  that  everything 
— the  vegetation,  the  cattle,  the  birds — take  on  a 
colourless  or  pale  hue,  and  where,  accordingly, 
Poesche  and  his  followers  conceive  that  the  blond 
type  must  have  originated. 

This  speculation,  and  the  closer  relation  of  the 
Lithuanic  language  to  the  Sanskrit  than  that  of 
any  other  European  tongue,  which  seems  pretty 
well  established,  make  it  extremely  desirable,  on 
scientific  grounds,  that  both  the  Lithuanians  and 
the  White  Russians  should  be  visited  in  their  own 
country,  and  their  physical  type  and  archaeology 
investigated  by  some  competent  authority.  One 
of  the  most  competent  men  in  Europe,  Professor 
Virchow,  once  undertook  the  task,  but  unfortun- 
ately he  had  to  stop  at  the  Prussian  frontier,  and 
his  results  were  not  conclusive.  Other  observers 
have  been  there,  but  at  present  we  really  know  less 
of  the  Lithuanians,  so  far  as  these  matters  are 
concerned,  than  of  many  a  small  tribe  ten  thousand 
miles  away. 

The  Letts,  it  is  true,  who  are  the  nearest  kindred 
of  the  Lithuanians,  are  not  quite  so  unknown. 
They  are  a  mesokephalic  people,  that  is,  their 
skulls  yield  a  breadth-index  of  78.  They  are  of 
good  stature,  and  of  fair  complexion,  with  blue  or 
blue-gray  eyes,  and  flaxen  or  brown  hair,  soft  and 
wavy.  The  old  Prussians,  of  whom  a  few  skulls, 
belonging,  it  would  seem,  to  the  long  Germanic  or 
graverow  form,  have  been  measured,  were  another 
branch  of  this  stock;  their  descendants  are  still 
long-headed,    but    apparently    less    so    than    the 


78      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

ancients.  These  people  have  undoubtedly  been 
long  in  contact  with  the  Finns  on  the  north-east, 
as  well  as  with  the  Scandio-Germanic  people  who 
dwelt  in  Livonia,  Esthonia,  and  Finnland,  before 
the  westward  movement  of  the  Finns. 

I  have  yet  to  speak  briefly  of  most  of  the  non- 
Aryan  tribes  of  eastern  and  south-eastern  Russia. 
The  Votiaks  and  Voguls  have  already  been  men- 
tioned. Excluding,  then,  the  Russians,  the  race 
elements  are,  first,  the  Ugrians  or  Finns,  who, 
notwithstanding  the  general  resemblance  already 
spoken  of,  vary  considerably  both  as  between  tribe 
and  tribe,  and  within  the  limits  of  the  tribe,  in 
form  of  head,  and  still  more  in  colour  of  the  hair 
and  eyes,  probably  by  reason  of  ancient  and  partial 
crossing  of  blood  with  Asiatics;  and  second,  the 
Turks,  in  some  cases  crossed  with  Mongolic  blood. 
The  invaders  are  probably  more  mixed,  on  the 
whole,  than  the  invaded,  to  judge  from  the  cephalic 
index. 

Thus  the  Cheremisses  have  a  stature  of  5  feet 
37  inches,  and  a  breadth-index  of  76"8,  and  are,  in 
great  proportion,  blond ;  they  are  the  remains  of  a 
spirited  and  once  formidable  people,  who  still  sacri- 
fice in  secret  in  consecrated  woods.  The  Chuvashes, 
more  Tartarized  in  blood  and  language,  are  a  little 
broader  in  head ;  some  think  them  to  be  Turks 
Finnized  rather  than  the  reverse,  but  it  is  more 
probable  that  they  are  the  remains  of  the  old 
Bulgarians. 

The  Mordwins  in  two  divisions,  the  Mokshas^ 
and  the  Ertsas,  belong  to  the  broad-headed  division  \ 


Russia  and  the  Balkan  Peninsula.  79 

of  the  Finns,  and,  on  the  whole,  incline  to  be  dark. 
Their  index  is  variously  reckoned,  but  is  well 
beyond  80. 

The  Tartars  of  Kassimov,  in  Riazan,  who  are 
Moslems,  do  not  now  mix  with  their  neighbours, 
but  we  may  conclude  that  they  once  did  so,  for 
their  index  of  breadth  is  but  81,  and  but  15  of  30 
had  black  hair.  The  Tartars  of  Kasan,  who  dwell 
where  once  the  Bulgarians  may  have  dwelt,  and 
who  must  have  mixed  largely  with  captives  from 
the  surrounding  tribes,  have  an  index  of  only  79'2, 
less  than  that  of  the  Russians. 

We  come  now  to  the  Bashkirs,  the  Metcheriaks, 
and  the  Teptiars,  all  undeniable  mongrels;  they 
are  Finnish  tribes  which  have  been  so  infiltrated 
with  Turk  blood  that  they  are  now  more  Turk 
than  Finn,  and  more  Tartar  than  the  Tartars  them- 
selves. The  Bashkirs  are  tall,  strong,  and  dark- 
haired,  with  but  few  exceptions;  they  seem  to 
exhibit  a  variety  of  types,  the  result  probably  of 
comparatively  recent  crossings.  Some  have  the 
round,  large,  low  heads  of  the  Mongols,  others  the 
round,  high  head,  and  large,  coarse  aquiline  nose  of 
the  high  Turkish  or  Turcoman  type ;  others,  again, 
according  to  photographs  I  have  seen,  exhibit  the 
comparatively  prominent  occiput,  cylindrical  head, 
and  retrousse  nose  of  the  Bulgarians.  Accordingly, 
some  report  their  breadth-index  at  79,  more  at  81 
or  82,  Ujfalvy  as  high  as  84. 

The  Metcheriaks  were  undoubted  Finns  from 
the  Metchera,  west  of  the  Volga ;  the  Turkish  cross 


80      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

has  improved  their  physique,  and  they  are  very  fine 
large  men,  with  the  dark  complexion  and  round 
heads  of  the  Turks. 

Further  south  the  Nogays  and  the  remainder  of 
the  Kalmuks  retain  their  original  Central  Asiatic 
types ;  the  latter,  as  Metchnikof  points  out,  exhibit- 
ing, in  their  large  round  heads,  short,  thick  noses, 
large  outstanding  ears,  short  chins,  and  legs  short 
in  comparison  to  the  trunk,  the  proportions  which 
Ouetelet  assigns  to  the  children  of  the  highest  or 
so-called  Caucasian  type  of  men.  To  these  points 
he  adds  the  peculiarity  of  the  Mongolian  eye  (which 
frequently  occurs  as  a  juvenile  condition  in  Western 
Europe),  and  the  late  appearance  of  the  beard. 

But  the  Tartars  of  the  Southern  Crimea  are  a 
different  people.  They  are  settled  agricultural  folk, 
but  there  is  no  good  reason  for  ascribing  any  change 
in  their  features  to  that  fact.^  They  appear  to  have 
absorbed  the  remains  of  the  Greeks  of  the  Cim- 
merian Bosphorus,  and,  what  is  to  us  still  more 
interesting,  those  of  the  Tetraxite  Goths,  who  are 
known  to  have  existed  hereabout  as  a  distinct  tribe 
as  late  as  the  sixteenth  century.  Busbequius  saw 
one  of  these  people  then,  who,  he  says,  had  the 
appearance  of  a  Fleming.  And  I  have  myself  seen, 
mixing  with  men  whose  eyes  and  complexion 
betrayed  the  Mongoloid  strain,  Tartars  whose  eyes, 
hair,  complexion,  and  features  would  have  passed 
muster  among  ourselves.    It  had  for  me  a  kind  of 


'  The  sedentary  Bashkirs  are  said  to  be  more  Mongoloid  in  physique 
than  their  nomad  kindred. 


Russia  and  the  Balkan  Peninsula.  81 

pathetic  interest  to  look  at  these  men,  to  recognise 
their  kindly  blood,  to  see  in  them  the  descendants 
of  the  companions  of  Kniva  and  of  Hermanric,  to 
know  that  the  nationality  they  once  belonged  to 
had  passed  away  and  been  forgotten,  and  that  to 
which  they  now  adhered  was  in  progress  to  the 
like  extinction. 

Of  the  quarternary  and  even  of  the  neolithic 
populations  of  the  Balkan  peninsula,  so  far  as  1  am 
aware,  nothing  whatever  is  known.  The  earliest 
period  of  which  we  really  seem  to  know  anything 
is  that  of  the  Mycenaean  civilization,  the  era  of 
bronze  and  gold  and  of  Cyclopean  constructions, 
though  in  Crete  the  last  two  decades  have  enabled 
us  to  see  farther  back  into  the  neolithic  age.  Evi- 
dently Greece  was  a  meeting-ground  of  several 
races.  The  northern  portions  of  the  peninsula 
were  in  the  possession  of  two  of  these,  the  Illyrian 
and  the  Thracian,  both  reputed  Arian,  though  in 
the  case  of  the  former  the  claim  is  doubtful:  it  is 
not  so  long  since  the  philologists  admitted  it:  and 
I  do  not  think  the  Albanian  language,  the  modern 
representative  of  the  Illyrian,  has  even  yet  been 
thoroughly  analysed.  Galen  speaks  of  the  Thracians 
as  a  fair  race:  I  do  not  think  much,  however,  of 
such  statements,  when  used,  as  he  used  them,  to 
support  a  theory.  It  would  be  convenient  to 
believe  that  the  Illyrians  were  short-headed  and 
swarthy,  but  I  know  of  no  evidence  from  ancient 
sources  on  these  points.  Fligier  would  deduce  most 
of  the  old  Greek  nomenclature  from  either  Myrian 
or  Thracian  etymologies,  but  that  there  was  an 


82      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

early  stratum  in  the  country  of  people  who  spoke 
a  Turanian  tongue,  as  argued  for  by  Hyde  Clark, 
I  entertain  little  doubt,  and  all  the  less  since  the 
identification  of  the  Hittite  physiognomy  has, 
coupled  with  other  lines  of  argument,  proved  the 
early  presence  of  Turanians  in  Asia  Minor. 

That  the  Hellenes  proper  were  a  race  of  the 
type  we  most  of  us  call  the  long-headed  Aryan, 
there  seems  no  doubt.  Nicollucci  found  an  index 
of  75'8  in  26  ancient  Greeks.  The  skulls  that  have 
come  down  to  us  from  the  classical  period  are 
generally  long,  rather  narrow  and  high ;  and  blond 
coloration  was  common  and  admired  among  the 
Greeks,  at  all  events  in  the  early  historical  period. 
Both  the  Achaens  and  the  Dorians  were  apparently 
waves  of  migration  from  some  more  northern 
region.  You  will  remember  that  almost  all  of 
Homer's  heroes  were  xanthous — blond  or  chestnut 
haired — Minerva  was  grey-eyed,  but  Juno  "  (Sowing " 
ox-eyed — probably  with  dark  as  well  as  large  eyes. 
The  earlier  subject  races,  Pelasgic  or  what  not,  may 
have  been  dark — Hector  was  dark-haired.  The 
doctrine  of  the  temperaments,  taken  with  the 
physical  traits  attributed  to  each  of  them,  indicates 
that  there  was  much  variety  of  colours  among  the 
Greeks  of  the  classic  period.  Even  the  Macedonians 
of  Alexander's  time,  according  to  Ujfalvy,  are  por- 
trayed as  blond,  with  long  rather  low  heads — quite 
a  northern  type.  ,3ut  later  on,  in^he  Romao-period.- 
„..tbe-Greeksjn  ^gypt  are  all  represented  with^ark 
eyes  and  hair. 

The  Hellenic  race  was  very  prolific  in  its  palmy 


Russia  and  the  Balkan  Peninsula.  83 

days,  but  like  all  military  and  exclusive  castes  it 
dwindled  after  a  time :  the  true  Spartans,  for  ex- 
ample, seem  to  have  become  almost  extinct.  Two 
natives  of  Sparta,  whom  I  once  had  an  opportunity 
of  examining,  might  have  belonged  to  some  primi- 
tive Turanian  race.  They  were  tall,  strongly  built, 
swarthy  and  brachykephalic.  It  must  be  remem- 
bered that  there  are  two  distinct  tribes  in  the  two 
mountain  ranges  of  Laconia,  the  Tzakpns  in  the 
eastern  one,  the  Mainotes  in  the  prolongation  of 
Taygetus  towards  Cape  Matapan,  neither  of  whom, 
so  far  as  I  am  aware,  have  really  been  studied.  The 
Tzakons'  dialect  is  said  to  have  Dorian  affinities.^ 
The  history  of  the  Peninsula,  in  relation  to 
ethnology,  is  not  very  complicated.  The  Kelts  in 
the  north  disappeared  early :  some  think  the  nor- 
thern Croats,  who  are  not  so  tall  or  so  dark  as  the 
southern  Croats,  are  merely  Kelts  Slavonized,  while 
the  southerners  are  Illyrians.  The  Thracians  lost 
their  nationality  and  language,  and  accepted  the 
Latin;  the  Illyrians,  at  least  the  southern  portion 
of  them,  holding  a  poorer,  more  mountainous  and 
difficult  country,  succeeded  in  retaining  their 
tongue,  of  which  the  Shkipetar  (Albanian),  is  the 
modern  representative.  The  Latin  occupancy  pro- 
bably scarcely  affected  the  blood :  the  Gothic  was 
transient;  but  the  Slavonic  was  extensive  and 
permanent,  influencing  more  or  less  the  whole 
country  down  to  Cape  Matapan,  and  changing  the 


^  I  once  caught  and  measured  a  Tzakon.     His  kephalic  index  was 
82-4,  or  80-4,  if  corrected,  for  the  skull. 


84      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

language  of  more  than  half  of  it.  In  the  people  of 
Servia  and  Bosnia,  I  think  the  Slav  element  really 
preponderates;  they  are  taller  and  finer  men  than 
the  Russians,  but  have  the  same  make  of  body  and 
often  of  countenance ;  and  a  great  many  of  them 
have  light  brown  hair  and  answer  to  Procopius's 
often-quoted  description  of  their  forefathers.  In 
the  Bulgarians,  the  Finnish  or  Ugrian  element  is 
strong,  and  there  is  much  Turkish  blood,  some 
perhaps  brought  in  with  the  Ugrian,  some,  especi- 
ally in  Eastern  Bulgaria,  by  the  Ottomans:  the 
Slavs  succeeded  in  giving  the  language,  perhaps 
more  owing  to  the  prestige  of  religion  therewith 
connected,  than  to  their  actual  superiority  in 
number;  but  the  "dour,"  sturdy  national  character 
is  rather  Finn  than  Slav.  As  to  the  skull-form, 
Kopernitsky  says  it  is  neither  one  nor  other;  but 
he  had  probably  in  his  mind  the  Finns  of  Tavastian 
Finnland.  The  form  is  long,  rather  narrow,  cylin- 
drical, with  very  regular  curves  and  absence  of 
frontal  or  parietal  bosses.  The  forehead  is  remark- 
ably recedent,  and  the  face  prognathous,  the  cheek- 
bones not  particularly  wide.  This  must  surely  be 
the  true  Bulgar  type,  for  it  is  neither  Slavish  nor 
Turkish,  nor  have  we  any  reason  to  think  it  old 
Thracian.  To  my  eye  it  resembles  that  of  the 
Cheremisses.  Both  Slavish  and  Turkish  types  do, 
however,  occur,  mixed  with  the  one  described ;  in 
what  proportions  we  do  not  yet  know,  but  Pittard 
has  proved  their  importance.  The  kephalic  index 
seems  to  increase  as  one  proceeds  westward  to 
Widdin  and  the  Servian  frontier. 


Russia  and  the  Balkan  Peninsula.  85 

The  Thracians,  once  thought  most  populous  of 
nations,  cannot  of  course  be  extinct.  Their  debris 
are  to  be  found  among  the  Roumans  or  Vlachs. 
Whether  the  Transdanubian  Roumans,  who  appear 
to  be  on  the  way  to  become  a  considerable  nation, 
have  a  Thracian  nucleus  or  substratum,  or  a  Dacian 
one;  whether,  that  is,  they  are  descendants  of 
Trajan's  colonists  and  Romanized  Dacians,  who 
remained  in  the  Transsylvanian  mountains  when 
Aurelian  recalled  their  fellows  across  the  Danube, 
or  whether,  as  Fligier  and  others  think,  they  were 
Romanized  Thracians,  who  in  some  time  of  dis- 
turbance, long  after  Aurelian's  day,  migrated  north- 
wards across  the  Danube  into  some  vacant  tract  in 
Transsylvania,  or  perhaps  were  transported  thither 
by  the  Avars — matters  little  ethnologically ;  the 
Dacians  and  the  Thracians  were  near  kindred. 
They  are  probably  a  good  deal  mixed  in  blood, 
especially  with  their  Slavonic  neighbours;  their 
complexion  is  usually  dark,  though  there  are  a 
good  many  blond  Roumans  in  the  Bukowina ; 
their  heads  are  broad  (828,  Weisbach)  and  of  good 
height,  and  rounded ;  their  faces  broad,  but  well 
featured,  with  nothing  of  the  prognathism  of  the 
Bulgarians. 

But  there  are  other  Roumans  in  the  far  south, 
perhaps  of  greater  interest,  though  comparatively 
few  in  number.  They  are  called  Roumans,  Vlachs, 
Zinzars;  they  are  mostly  shepherds  and  herdsmen, 
who  wander  along  and  across  the  ridges  and 
elevated  mountain  valleys  of  Pindus,  and  towards 
Parnassus  and   CEta.     Remote  and  secluded,  they 


86      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

have  been  little  studied ;  but  they  must  be  the 
descendants  of  the  old  Roman  provincials,  perhaps 
of  Macedonian  or  Thracian  blood.  They  are  des- 
cribed as  having  sharply-drawn  features  and  long, 
shaggy  fair  hair,  but  that  may  be  true  of  but  one 
particular  tribe.  Their  names  crop  up  nowadays 
in  the  troubled  politics  of  Macedonia. 

And  in  the  recesses  of  Mount  Rhodope,  between 
the  Hebrus,  the  Strymon  and  the  sea,  among  the 
Pomaks  or  nominally  Moslem  Bulgarians,  has  been 
preserved  an  oral  literature  of  great  interest,  in  the 
ballad  form,  and  containing  sundry  words  which 
appear  to  be  Aryan  but  not  Slavonic,  and  may  very 
well  be  Thracian.  These  ballads  have  for  subjects, 
Alexander  the  Great,  and  Philip,  and  contain  allu- 
sions to  Orpheus,  and  to  other  personages  who  may 
be  referred  to  Greek  mythology.  A  controversy 
like  that  about  Ossian  arose  about  these  poems; 
but  I  believe  their  genuineness  is  now  allowed. 
We  must  suppose  therefore  that  we  have  in  the 
Rhodope  the  remains  of  Thracians  who  were  still 
un-Romanized  in  speech  when  the  Slavs  and 
Bulgarians  overran  the  land.  It  may  be  noted 
that  the  heroes  in  these  poems  are  always  de- 
scribed as  fair-haired,  but  Fligier  says  this  epithet 
could  not  be  applied  to  the  present  generation  in 
Rhodope. 

Here  are  fine  opportunities  for  any  enterprizing 
Englishman  with  money  and  a  taste  for  travel  and 
adventure,  and  with  sufficient  brains  to  be  able  to 
pick  up  a  language.  But  alas!  such  men  usually 
seem  to  care  for  nothing  but  "  killing  something." 


Russia  and  the  Balkan  Peninsula.  87 

Men  of  the  type  of  Campbell  of  Islay  are  wanted ; 
but  alas!  men  so  gifted  and  so  disposed  are  few. 

The  Albanians,  the  modern  representatives  of 
the  Illyrians,  are  men  of  good  stature,  with  long 
faces  and  prominent,  often  pointed  noses;  their 
heads  are  remarkably  short  and  broad,  with  the 
greatest  breadth  placed  far  back.  The  first  skull 
ever  obtained  for  measurement  yielded  to  Virchow 
an  index  of  91'5,  and  a  small  series  of  three  from 
Scutari  gave  to  Zampa  one  of  89*5 — extraordinary 
figures.  Their  colour  varies  in  tribes  and  in  indivi- 
duals, but  I  think  the  most  characteristic  specimens 
have  mostly  lank  black  hair,  lighter  colours  being 
due  to  Slavic  or  Greek  admixture.^  The  people  to 
the  north  of  them,  the  Morlachs,  or  Black  Wallachs, 
in  Dalmatia  and  Montenegro,  and  the  Herzegovina, 
are  of  an  Illyro-Slavic  cross;  they  are  a  tall,  dark 
race.  "  The  wife  of  Hasan  Aga  "  must  have  been  a 
brunette,  when — 

"  Wide  through  Bosnia  and  the  Herzegovina 
Spread  the  tidings  of  her  matchless  beauty." 

These  people  have  been  examined  by  the  indefatig- 
able Weisbach.  They  have  an  average  stature  of 
about  1,690  millimeters,  and  in  a  mountainous  dis- 
trict 1,720,  or  nearly  5  ft.  8  in.,  the  highest  average 


^This  was  my  impression,  and  I  am  inclined  to  adhere  to  it;  but 
Miss  Durham,  who  has  dwelt  among  the  northern  tribes,  says  that  she 
found  there  tall,  fair,  and  small,  dark  ugly  men,  that  the  former  were 
said  to  have  immigrated  from  the  north  and  east,  but  claimed  to  be  the 
true  Albanians  or  Shkipetar.  I  suspect  they  were  really  more  or  less 
Slavonic,  and  adopted  the  Shkipetar  language  from  the  lUyrian 
aborigines. 


88      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

ascertained  in  Southern  Europe;  and  the  highest 
stature  is  found  in  the  south,  i.e.,  the  most  Illyrian 
and  least  Croat  region,  and  goes  with  the  blackest 
hair.  The  index  of  breadth  is  84,  which  is  extremely 
high.  On  the  whole,  lUyria  seems  to  have  been  a 
focus  for  broad  heads  and  dark  colours.  Deniker 
makes  of  these  people  a  distinct  race. 

Among  modern  Greeks  there  are  considerable 
physical  differences  no  doubt.  Some  portions  of 
their  country  have  been  colonised  en  masse  by 
Slavonians;  others,  as  Attica,  by  Albanians.  Even 
the  so-called  national  dress  of  the  Greeks  is  the 
Albanian  kilt  or  fustanella.  Still  the  old  type  is  far 
from  being  extinct,  either  in  Europe  or  in  Asia; 
the  ideal  of  the  sculptors  was  perhaps  always  rare, 
but  I  have  seen  it,  living  and  breathing,  and  kissing 
my  hands,  in  Asia  Minor. 

Nicolucci  found  modern  Greek  skulls  smaller  in 
capacity  than  the  ancient,  and  decidedly  shorter; 
still,  the  index  was  under  80  (79'2),  the  height  was 
good  (75).^  Weisbach  found  a  breadth -index  of 
77'4  in  Greeks  of  Constantinople;  78'3  for  the 
Peloponnese ;  807  in  a  large  series  from  Bithynia ; 
and  83'8  in  another  from  Selymbria  in  Roumelia. 
The  last  result  is  curious ;  one  must  remember  that 
Greek  means  Greek  by  religion  and  language,  or 
not  always  even  that.  The  divisions  of  peoples  in 
the  Levant  are  very  sharply  accentuated ;  inter- 
marriage, for  example,  between  Turk  and  Greek, 
or  Armenian  and   Greek,  hardly  ever  occurs,  but 

^  I  found  an  index  of  80  in  ten  iEgean  islanders. 


Russia  and  the  Balkan  Peninsula.  89 

one  must  not  treat  these  divisions  as  necessarily 
ethnological.  These  so-called  Greeks  of  Selymbria 
belong  to  the  Greek  community ;  that  is  all  that 
can  be  positively  asserted.  As  to  their  race,  all  that 
one  can  be  pretty  sure  of  is  that  there  is  very  little 
Greek  blood  in  them. 


LECTURE    IV. 


SCANDINAVIA,  CENTRAL  EUROPE, 
FRANCE. 

Oldest  Scandinavian  Skull-forms — The  Borreby  and  Svelrik  skulls 
— The  Rhoxalani — Modern  Norwegians  and  Danes — The  Ice- 
landers— Ancient  German  Graverow  type — The  four  Swiss 
types  of  His  and  Rutimeyer — Von  Holder's  discoveries  at 
Ratisbon  —  Ranke  on  the  Bavarians^— Bohemia — Hallstadt — 
Hungary,  Poland,  Holland  —  Colour  and  stature  in  Central 
Europe — France,  constitution  of  the  Keltic  nation  there — 
Results  of  the  Volkswanderung — Clear  demarcation  of  types  in 
Belgium,  less  clear  in  France — Investigations  of  Topinard  and 
Collignon. 

THE  three  Scandinavian  countries  may  be  taken 
together  as  constituting  a  single  province  with 
respect  to  race  as  well  as  to  language.  Denmark 
probably  became  peopled  a  little  earlier  than 
Sweden,  and  perhaps  Southern  Sweden  earlier  than 
Norway ;  but  we  have  remains  of  the  men  of  the 
stone  period  from  all  of  them,  though  very  few 
from  Norway.  Those  who  think,  as  most  do,  that 
the  Lapps,  or  a  people  akin  to  them,  were  the 
earliest  inhabitants  of  Norway  and  Sweden,  point 
to  the  fact  that  the  modern  Lapps  exercise  great 
secretiveness  with  regard  to  the  burial  of  their  dead, 
as  a  reason  why  the  resting-places  of  their  supposed 
ancestors  are  very  rarely  discovered. 


Scandittavia,  Central  Europe,  France.        91 

The  Swedish  skulls  of  the  stone  age  are  elon- 
gated, and  resemble  the  Graverow  type  of  Germany, 
but  among  them  are  said  to  be  about  10  per  cent,  of 
short  round  skulls,  generally  thought  to  resemble 
those  of  Lapps,  and  to  indicate  admixture  of  races. 
In  Denmark  I  am  not  aware  that  the  kitchen- 
middens  have  ever  yielded  a  perfect  skull;  but 
there  are  many  in  the  Museum  at  Copenhagen 
from  cists  and  stone-galleries.  They  vary  in 
length ;  some  of  them  attain  to  brachykephaly,  but 
they  are  mostly  characterised  by  ruggedness  of 
form,  and  particularly  by  the  great  development 
of  the  superciliary  or  brow-ridges.  In  this  and  in 
outline  as  viewed  sidewise  they  much  resemble 
those  of  the  bronze  race  in  Britain,  but  are  not 
generally  so  wide :  they  also  resemble  the  Sion  type 
of  Switzerland,  which  seems  to  have  been  that  of 
the  Gallic  Helvetii.  Some  fine  examples  came  from 
Borreby,  and  the  type  is  usually  known  by  that 
name. 

Unfortunately,  the  Danish  archaeologists  seem  to 
have  been  singularly  unsuccessful  in  finding  or 
procuring  skulls  of  the  bronze  or  early  iron  periods. 
Those  they  have  are  extraordinarily  long  and 
narrow,  but  they  are  too  few  to  generalize  upon. 
Virchow  has  remarked  that  the  old  stone-type 
seems  to  have  continued  to  exist  in  Denmark,  and 
is  pretty  common  nowadays :  this  is  pretty  much 
what  one  finds  in  most  countries;  either  the  influ- 
ence of  local  agencies  continues  to  work  in  the 
same  direction  on  the  skull-form,  or  else  the  original 
race,  the  autochthonic  if  any  race  is  so,  having  had 


92      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

time  to  assimilate  itself  to  the  conditions,  and  to 
acquire  potency  in  breeding  true,  and  being  perhaps 
favoured  by  social  conditions  which  I  have  before 
spoken  of,  outlasts  its  conquerors  or  other  new- 
comers, and  once  more  acquires  predominance. 

The  only  skull  found  in  Norway  which  is  with 
absolute  certainty  referred  to  the  stone  period,  that 
of  Svelrik,  is  precisely  of  the  form  just  now  in 
question,  but  its  breadth  index  is  only  76*4 ;  height, 
74*41.  Skulls  of  this  type  still  occur  among  the 
modern  Norwegians,  but  not  very  commonly. 
They  are  not  like  those  of  modern  Lapps:  as 
Dr.  Arbo  says,  we  don't  know  what  sorts  of  heads 
the  Lapps  of  those  days  had;  but  plenty  of  skulls 
much  more  like  those  of  Lapps  have  been  found  in 
Germany,  Belgium,  and  France;  for  example,  some 
of  those  Dupont  found  at  Furfooz  near  Dinant; 
apparently  also  the  ancient  round  skulls  of  Sweden 
are  of  this  class. 

Montelius,  one  of  the  best  known  of  several  able 
Swedish  archaeologists,  is  of  opinion  that  there  is 
no  evidence  to  shew  any  change  of  race  in  that 
country  since  the  stone  period:  he  thinks,  that  is, 
that  the  ancient  long-headed  race  that  first  entered 
the  country  after  the  small  round-headed  Lapps 
or  Finns,  has  always  remained  there  undisturbed. 
Aspelin,  on  the  other  hand,  thinks  that  the  Rox- 
alani,  those  mighty  men  in  scale-armour  who  came 
into  contact  with  the  Romans  on  the  Danube,  were 
the  ancestors  of  the  true  Swedes  as  distinguished 
from  the  Goths;  that  they  dwelt  somewhere  east  of 
the  Baltic,  and  crossed  over  in  order  to  escape  from 


Scandinavia,  Central  Europe,  France.        93 

the  Huns.  This  theory  would  suit  well  with  the 
old  beliefs  about  Asgard  and  Woden ;  and  I  believe 
the  Finns  call  the  Swedes  Ruotsi — Ruotsi-alainen— 
Red-men.  But  the  names  of  Roxalanian  kings, 
known  to  the  Romans,  have  not  a  very  Gothic 
sound:  they  are  Tascius  an^  Rhescuporius.^ 

Since  the  above  was  written,  very  much  has  been 
accomplished  in  the  matter  of  Swedish  anthro- 
pology, chiefly  by  Gustaf  Retzius  and  by  Professor 
Fiirst  of  Lund.  We  are  now  able  to  say  with  con- 
fidence that  there  was  a  great  general  resemblance 
in  skull  form  between  the  people  of  the  stone, 
the  bronze,  and  the  iron  ages.  The  typical  form 
through  all  these  periods  was  very  long,  rather 
narrow,  and  of  height  slightly  less  than  the  breadth. 
Brachykephals  were  apparently  rare  throughout, 
but  the  limits  of  variation  of  the  cranial  index  seem 
to  have  been  greatest  in  the  stone  age  (667  to  85'5), 
and  least  in  the  iron  age  (69  to  80'6).  The  easiest 
way  of  accounting  for  this  is  to  suppose  that  the 
earliest  inhabitants  were  of  two  stocks,  the  more 
numerous  one,  dolichokephalic,  coming  in  from  the 
south,  and  acquiring,  may  be,  in  the  lapse  of  ages, 
through  exposure  to  the  influences  of  a  boreal 
climate,  the  blond  complexion  and  lofty  stature; 
the  other,  brachykephalic,  perhaps  of  Lappish  kin- 
dred, from  the  east,  and  that  in  course  of  time  the 
relics  of  the  latter  have  become  thoroughly  amal- 
gamated. 

Any  ethnological  changes  in  Scandinavia  during 

'  But  Tassilo  was  a  Duke  of  Bavaria  some  centuries  later. 


94      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

the  historic  period,  which  here  does  not  reach 
very  far  back,  must  have  been  small.  Ugrians 
from  Bjarmaland,  fleeing  from  the  Mongols,  as 
already  mentioned,  have  settled  in  the  north :  and 
other  Finns,  the  Quaens,  have  followed  them :  the 
Swedes  have  gradually  colonised  their  own  terri- 
tory, and  the  Norwegians  the  higher  and  inner 
dales ;  the  Danes  have  receded  a  little  in  the  south, 
while  Frisians,  Low  Germans,  even  Wends,  have 
advanced :  but  the  important  movements  have  been 
those  of  emigration ;  from  Sweden  to  Russia,  from 
Denmark  and  Norway  to  Iceland,  Scotland,  England, 
Ireland,  Normandy,  and  elsewhere,  aye,  even  to 
America. 

Likely  enough  the  physical  types  may  have 
changed  a  little,  with  the  departure  of  the  most 
energetic  and  adventurous  part  of  the  population, 
including  probably  an  undue  proportion  of  the 
chieftain  caste.  There  is  an  old  document  some- 
where, quoted  by  Mallet  or  Dasent,  which  describes 
the  nobles  as  fair-haired,  the  churls  red-haired,  the 
thralls  black-haired,  and  which,  as  well  as  many  of 
the  stories  about  trolls,  seems  to  point  to  the  expul- 
sion or  subjugation  of  a  primitive  dark  race. 

As  to  present  conditions,  we  know  a  great  deal 
about  the  Norwegians,  thanks  to  Dr.  Arbo  and 
Sergeant  Westly.  Dr.  Arbo's  maps  of  stature,  of 
hair-colour  and  of  head-breadth,  have  a  very  con- 
fused, jumbled  look,  due,  as  he  explains,  to  the  fact 
that  the  country  is  divided  so  trenchantly,  by 
mountains  and  forests,  into  districts  which  have 
little  communication  with  each  other.    The  average 


Scandinavia,  Central  Europe,  France.        95 

stature  at  twenty-two  years  seems  to  be  1680  to  1700 
millimeters,  or  scarcely  5  feet  7  inches,  less  than 
I  should  have  expected :  in  some  districts  it  rises 
to  1730  (5  feet  8  inches).  The  skull  is  dolichous 
(index  after  correction  74-75),  in  a  number  of  dis- 
tricts chiefly  in  the  interior.  Dr.  Arbo  says  that 
the  prevalence  of  long  heads  concurs  generally  with 
that  of  a  high  stature,  and  very  blond  hair,  a  more 
advanced  social  condition,  and  sometimes  aristo- 
cratic, but  certainly  conservative,  tendencies.  He 
^Iso  says  that  prognathism  goes  oftener  with  broader 
heads.  Brachykephals  (78'5  to  81),  occupy  especially 
the  coasts  and  the  south-west.  Near  the  head  of 
the  Sognefiord,  also,  some  dales  are  inhabited  by  a 
population  with  rather  broad  heads  (78*5)  and  dark 
complexions,  with  great  physical  and  intellectual 
activity.  It  is  difficult,  however,  to  make  out 
much  about  colour :  on  the  whole  the  hair  seems 
to  be  lighter  in  the  south  and  west  than  in  the 
north  and  south-west. 

It  is  lighter  in  the  south-west  in  Sweden,  where 
West  Gothland  and  Scania  are  said  to  produce  the 
fairest  people.  In  Dalecarlia,  where  Quatrefages 
and  Hamy  think  they  find  the  Cromagnon  type, 
the  hair,  I  understand,  is  often  dark.  I  found  the 
breadth-index  of  a  number  of  Swedes  792,  or  after 
correction  for  life  and  the  integuments,  77'2,  which 
I  believe  is  about  where  it  is  put  by  some  dis- 
tinguished savans. 

Within  the  last  few  years,  G.  Retzius  and  Furst 
have  cleared  up  this  part  also  of  the  subject,  as 
regards  Sweden.    Their  researches,  carried  out  on 


96      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

conscripts,  have  distinctly  settled  several  important 
points  respecting  the  modern  Swedes.  In  stature 
they  equal  or  surpass  any  European  nation:  their 
conscripts  averaging  1709  millimeters  (67*28  inches), 
while  the  provinces  vary  between  172,7  millimeters 
(68  inches)  in  the  Isle  of  Gottland,  and  1691  milli- 
meters (6657  inches)  in  Lappland,  where,  I  appre- 
hend, the  pure  Lapps  pull  down  the  average.  Of 
course,  many  of  these  young  soldiers  have  not 
attained  their  full  growth.  Speaking  generally, 
the  central  provinces  produce  taller  men  than 
either  the  northern  or  the  extreme  southern  ones. 
They  have  also  a  lower  kephalic  index  and  a  larger 
proportion  of  true  dolichokephals  (long-heads). 
Finally  the  centre,  south,  and  west,  have  the  greatest 
preponderance  of  fair  hair:  the  variation  in  the  pro- 
portion of  light  and  dark  eyes  is  less  conspicuous. 
Some  anomalies  which  are  discovered  on  minute 
study  are  easily  explicable  by  the  history :  thus  the 
heads  are  a  little  broader  in  Uppland  and  Scania 
than  one  would  have  expected ;  but  Walloon  and 
other  alien  miners  worked  the  mines  of  Uppland, 
and  Scania  was  long  a  province  of  Denmark.  West 
Gothland  is  apparently,  though  but  slightly,  the 
most  blond  of  all;  but  East  Gothland  is  different 
in  that  respect,  and  I  see  no  facts  sufficient  to 
indicate  that  there  was  any  original  difference 
between  the  true  Swedes  and  the  Goths.  Both 
these,  and  the  possible  Roxalanians  too,  pretty 
surely  belonged  to  the  same  tall  dolichoblond  type. 
Generally  speaking,  the  coastmen  have  slightly 
broader  heads  than  the  men  of  the  interior.    For  all 


Scandinavia,  Central  Europe,  France.        97 

Sweden  the  index,  got  by  reducing  that  measured 
by  2  degrees  is  only  75'8;  but  I  myself  got  one  of 
77'2  from  thirty  Swedish  sailors.  This  is  doubtless 
due  to  modern  mixture  of  blood. 

The  Danes  are  rather  lower  in  stature  than  is 
generally  supposed,  and  scarcely  so  tall  as  the 
Frisians  and  Saxons  of  Sleswick,  to  the  south  of 
them.  The  average  adult  stature  seems  to  be 
169'4  millimeters  (Soren-Hansen)  or  667  inches,  and 
the  kephalic  index  80'5,  which,  it  interests  me  some- 
what to  know,  is  the  exact  figure  at  which  I  myself 
arrived  forty  years  ago,  from  observations  on  a  few 
(twenty-eight)  Danish  seamen.  Steensby  finds  the 
most  prevalent  type  of  skull  and  figure  to  be  much  ^ 
the  same  as  that  which  the  late  Park  Harrison  and  )  ^^;^.^^ 
D.  Macintosh  found  in  Kent  and  Wight,  and  labelled  y 
Jutish.  Steensby  correlates  it  with  the  ancient 
Borreby  type  of  Denmark  and  the  Sion  one  of 
Switzerland,  and  hazards  a  conjecture  that  it  was 
developed  in  the  course  of  ages  from  the  primeval 
Neanderthaloid.  The  race  history  of  Denmark  is 
that  of  a  slow  westerly  drifting  from  Denmark  to 
England  and  the  Cotentin,  the  gaps  left  being  filled 
up  ultimately  from  the  east,  i.e.,  from  Sweden  or 
even  by  Wends,  or  Saxons  from  the  south. 

In  Thy,  one  of  the  districts  where  the  stature  is 
highest,  it  is  but  1670  millimeters  on  the  average, 
equal  to  something  less  than  5  ft.  6  in.  As  the  sub- 
jects are  conscripts,  probably  one  may  allow  an  inch 
for  subsequent  growth.  In  Wendsyssel  and  part  of 
Zealand  it  is  165'9,  or  5  ft.  5*  in.  There  are  also 
local  differences  in  colour;  evidently,  as  in  some 


98      The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

other  countries,  including  our  own,  many  more 
women  than  men  have  dark  eyes.  On  the  whole, 
blue  or  grey  eyes  and  rather  light  brown  hair  pre- 
vail. As  to  the  form  of  the  head,  I  have  no  figures 
but  my  own,  gathered  from  only  twenty-eight  sub- 
jects; I  make  the  index,  corrected,  to  be  785,  but 
this  may  probably  be  in  excess. 

In  stature*  the  Swedes  probably  equal  any  Euro- 
pean nation ;  but  except  the  American  statistics  of 
Dr.  Baxter,  in  which  are  included  a  large  number 
of  Swedish  soldiers,  I  do  not  think  there  are  any 
published  measurements  on  a  large  scale.  Baxter's 
average  was  5  feet  69  inches;  Gould's,  on  a  smaller 
basis,  was  higher. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  phenomena  in  Scandinavia 
are  consistent  with  the  original  occupation  of  these 
countries  by  a  dark  race  or  races,  with  skulls  tend- 
ing, at  least,  to  be  broad,  and  with  the  subsequent 
arrival  from  the  south  of  a  fairer  race  with  long 
heads,  whose  type  assumed  preponderance.  The 
blondness  of  the  southern  invaders  might  become 
accentuated  in  and  by  the  Scandinavian  climate. 
There  seems  little  reason  to  suppose  there  has  been 
any  subsequent  increase  of  breadth  except  to  the 
small  extent  which  incorporation  of  primitive  strata 
of  population  would  imply.  As  for  the  Swedes, 
there  is  a  good  deal  of  indistinct  evidence  to  connect 
them  with  the  Lithuanian  stock,  whose  index  is  not 
very  much  higher. 

The  Icelanders  must  not  pass  unmentioned.  The 
ancient  colonists  of  this  everyway  remarkable  island 
included  a  large  proportion  of  the  noble  caste.    It 


Scandinavia,  Central  Europe,  France.        99 

has  been  suggested,  also,  that  the  captives  they 
brought  from  Ireland,  and  occasional  intermarriages 
with  the  Irish  and  Scottish  Gaels,  gave  them  the  ray 
of  poetic  imagination  which  sometimes  brightens 
their  wonderful  but  sanguinary  Sagas.  We  know 
from  these  Sagas  what  manner  of  men  they  were  in 
personal  appearance.  They  had  the  same  varieties 
of  complexion  and  hair-colour  that  we  have,  and  in 
some  cases  Irish  features  came  out  with  Irish  blood ; 
thus  Kjartan  had  dark  hair,  and  Skarphedin,  the  son 
of  Njal,  was  the  most  soldierly  and  active  of  men, 
but  he  had  an  ugly  mouth,  and  his  teeth  stuck  out. 

The  modern  Icelanders  are  big,  fair  men;  the 
only  skull  I  can  find  mentioned  is  one  at  Gottingen, 
with  indices  of  723  and  72'9.  Some  measurements 
made  for  me  by  Dr.  Hjaltelin  come  out  a  little 
broader.  In  Germany  and  Central  Europe,  as  else- 
where, the  very  oldest  skulls  seem  to  be  dolichoke- 
phalic;  in  this  case  they  are  of  the  Canstatt  type, 
and  one  of  them  is  the  famous  Neanderthaler. 
Several  broad  skulls  also  have  been  found,  which 
have  very  respectable  pretensions  to  primitive 
antiquity. 

The  crania  of  the  neolithic  period  throughout 
the  whole  region  under  consideration,  are  in  great 
majority  also  dolichokephalic.  Perhaps  I  should 
make  a  partial  and  doubtful  exception  with  regard 
to  the  pile-dwellers  on  the  Swiss  lakes.  But  gener- 
ally speaking,  from  the  North  Sea  and  the  Baltic  to 
the  Danube  and  the  Alps,  and  eastward  through 
Bohemia  to  the  Vistula  and  the  Niemen,  the  pre- 
vailing form  was  long.     In  many  of  the  Hugel- 


100     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

graber,  the  dolmens  and  tumuli,  a  form  occurs  with 
greater  breadth  and  roundness,  but  still  averaging 
under  80. 

We  have  no  history  for  Germany  until  well  into 
the  iron  age,  nor  anything  but  probabilities  based 
on  philological  arguments.  I  am  disposed  to  look 
on  the  tenants  of  the  Hiigelgraber  as  Gallic,  but 
this  is  but  my  own  private  conjecture.  From 
Tacitus's  account,  the  Poles  (Lygii,  Lekhs)  were 
already  in  Poland  in  his  time,  but  the  modern  Poles 
have  broad  square  heads  (82'4). 

The  Germans  had  already  begun  to  overpass  the 
Rhine  and  the  Danube  when  the  arrival  of  the 
Romans  checked  their  expansion,  and  determined  a 
flux  of  Kelts,  Rhaetians,  Pannonians  and  others, 
mostly  of  the  broadheaded  division  of  Europeans, 
to  the  frontier,  whose  descendants  are  still  extant. 

Meanwhile  the  mass  of  tall,  blond,  vigorous 
barbarians  multiplied,  seethed  and  fretted  behind 
the  barrier  thus  imposed.  Tacitus  and  several 
other  classic  authors  speak  of  the  remarkable  uni- 
formity in  their  appearance ;  how  they  were  all  tall 
and  handsome,  with  fierce  blue  eyes  and  yellow 
hair.  Humboldt  remarks  the  tendency  we  all  have, 
to  see  only  the  single  type  in  a  strange  foreign 
people,  and  to  shut  our  eyes  to  the  differences 
among  them.  Thus  some  of  us  think  sheep  all 
alike;  but  the  shepherd  knows  better;  and  many 
think  all  Chinamen  are  alike,  whereas  they  differ, 
in  reality,  quite  as  much  as  we  do,  or  rather  more. 
But  with  respect  to  the  ancient  Germans,  there 
certainly  was  among  them  one  very  prevalent  form 


Scandinavia,  Central  Europe,  France.      101 

of  head,  and  even  the  varieties  of  feature  which 
occur  among  the  Marcomans,  for  example,  on 
Marcus  Aurelius's  column,  all  seem  to  oscillate 
round  one  central  type. 

This  is  the  Graverow  type  of  Ecker,  the  Hohberg 
type  of  His  and  Rutimeyer,  the  Swiss  anatomists. 
In  it  the  head  is  long,  narrow  (say  from  70  to  76  in 
breadth-index),  as  high  or  higher  than  it  is  broad, 
with  the  upper  part  of  the  occiput  very  prominent, 
the  forehead  rather  high  than  broad,  often  dome- 
shaped,  often  receding,  with  prominent  brows,  the 
nose  long,  narrow  and  prominent,  the  cheekbones 
narrow  and  not  prominent,  the  chin  well  marked, 
the  mouth  apt  to  be  prominent  in  women.  In 
Germany  persons  with  these  characters  have  almost 
always  light  eyes  and  hair.  Now  comes  a  problem, 
one  of  several  in  German  anthropology.  This 
Graverow  type  is  almost  exclusively  what  is  found 
in  the  burying-places  of  the  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh 
centuries,  whether  of  the  Alemanni,  the  Bavarians, 
the  Franks,  the  Saxons,  or  the  Burgundians. 
Schetelig  dug  out  a  graveyard  in  southern  Spain, 
which  is  attributed  to  the  Visigoths.  Still  the  same 
harmonious  elliptic  form,  the  same  indices,  breadth 
73,  height  74. 

But  Ecker,  proceeding  from  the  examination  of 
the  ancient  Alemanni  to  that  of  the  modern 
Swabians,  was  surprised  to  find  that  from  among 
them  the  Graverow  type  had  almost  disappeared, 
and  that  a  short  broad  squarish  form,  with  flattened 
occiput,  had  taken  its  place.  Then  Von  Holder 
investigated  the  Wirtembergers.    They  are  mostly 


102     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

Swabians,  too ;  but  probably  the  Alemanni  occu- 
pied this  country  before  they  spread  into  Baden 
and  the  Brisgau ;  and  so  there  are  more  blonds  in 
Wirtemberg. 

Accordingly,  Von  Holder  found  a  small  number 
of  the  true  Germanic  or  Graverow  heads,  but  also 
a  few  of  the  oblong  form  just  mentioned,  which 
he  calls  Rhceto  -  Sarmatian,  and  once  in  a  way  a 
globular  form,  his  true  Turanian,  while  the  majority 
is  made  up  of  various  crosses  between  the  three. 
Von  Holder  wrote  to  me  years  ago,  saying  that  he 
much  wished  to  come  to  England  in  order  to  see 
the  true  Germans,  who  are  really  stronger  here 
than  in  Swabia,  though  in  Franconia,  a  little  further 
north,  they  are  numerous.  The  average  index  of 
modern  Wirtemburgers  is  about  81'6.  Von  Holder 
found  the  long  Germanic  forms  more  prevalent 
among  noblemen  and  burghers  than  among  artizans 
and  labourers.  He  thought  the  Sarmatic  forms  had 
been  strengthened,  and  the  Turanian  ones  intro- 
duced, by  the  settlement  on  the  land  of  Slavonic, 
Hunnish,  Avar,  and  Magyar  captives,  taken  in  war 
by  the  Germans. 

It  is  difficult  to  dismiss  Switzerland  briefly.  Its 
proto-historic  inhabitants  were  Rhaetian  in  the  east, 
Keltic-Helvetian  in  the  west  and  north.  What  the 
pile-dwellers  had  been  is  a  subject  by  itself,  which, 
for  the  present,  I  will  leave  to  Dr.  Monro. 

His  and  Rutimeyer  found  four  ancient  types: 

1.  The  Hohberg,  which  is  Germanic,  though 
they  thought  it  Roman. 

2.  The  Belair,  which  is  Burgundian-German. 


o 

Q- 


o 

UJ 

o 

a. 

rd 

< 

u 
CQ 

-J 

< 

o 

H 

cr 

UJ 

> 

1 

1 

U) 

u 

Q. 

> 

h- 

o 

-J 

"ci 

_l 

JC 

z: 

Ql 

::^ 

Q) 

C/) 

o 

j=: 

2 

o 

< 

IZI 

bJ 

o 

Dl 

Q 

O 

CC 

=D 

03 
o 

'  — 

"u 

ti: 

0) 

_c: 

.  L. 

Ui 

3 

Q. 

1— 

VI 

CO 

6 

</) 

"td 

O 

■-♦J 

'■M 

c 

E 

rd 

8 

0) 

to 

CO 

CC 

Q 

CO 


DQ 


cj 


^     .^ 


0} 


03 


CO  -a 

'-=  cu 

en  r= 

c:  :  — 


_cd 

03 
QQ 


Scandinavia,  Central  Europe,  France.       103 

3.  The  Sion — large,  longish  but  rounded,  frown- 
ing, aquiline  —  very  like  the  modern  Walloon. 
Keltic-Helvetian. 

4.  The  Disentis.  Very  short  and  broad,  cuboid 
but  for  the  narrowness  of  the  forehead.  Rhaetian, 
Rhaeto  -  Sarmatic  of  Von  Holder,  Keltic  form  of 
some. 

The  Alemanni  conquered  and  Germanized  as 
to  language  the  centre  and  north-east,  but  the 
Rhaetians  in  the  south-east  were  little  touched. 
The  Burgundians  conquered  the  west,  but  did  not 
change  the  language  there,  which  is  now  French. 
The  Disentis  type  of  head  is  nowadays  in  great 
majority.  The  greater  stature  in  the  west  of 
Switzerland  may  be  credited  to  the  Helvetii  and 
to  the  seven-foot  Burgundians,  as  Sidonius  Apolli- 
naris  called  them :  in  the  east  it  has  probably  been 
reduced  by  the  continued  emigration  of  the  taller 
men,  who  would  be  largely  of  Alemannic  type. 
The  skull-breadth  which  I  found  in  two  places  was 
83'6 :  in  parts  of  the  Grisons  it  is  probably  greater. 

In  Bavaria  the  proto- historic  population  may 
have  been  Keltic  or  Rhaetian  even  north-east  of  the 
Danube,  in  the  Upper  Palatinate;  recent  discoveries 
at  Hohenbuchel  and  elsewhere  seem  to  indicate  a 
non-Germanic  population,  with  broadish  heads  and 
broad  flat  noses ;  but  at  least  as  early  as  the  Roman 
occupation  the  pure  Germans  (Marcoman  or  Her- 
mundurian,  probably),  began  to  come  in.  Franconia 
was  probably  Germanic  from  the  first.  Subse- 
quently the  Slavs  from  the  Bohemian  side  settled 
largely  in  Upper  and  Middle  Franconia. 


104     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

Von  Holder's  work  done  at  Regensburg  (Ratis- 
bon)  is  most  pregnant  and  suggestive.  From 
the  Roman  cemeteries  he  obtained  nine  skulls 
dating  from  the  second  century,  with  a  breadth 
index  of       -  -  -  -  -       79'4 

From  about  a.d.  200,  8  skulls,  -       771 

From  the  third  century,  13  skulls,    -        77*4 
From  about  a.d.  300, 10  skulls,  -        757 

From  the  fourth  century,  22  skulls,  -        751 
And  50  skulls  from  an  old  Bavarian 
burying-ground  of  the  sixth  or 
seventh    centuries,    the    Mero- 
vingian period,     -  -  -        73'8 
I  do  not  enter  into  particulars  as  to  the  other 
racemarks  in  these  crania ;  in  this  instance  at  least 
they  vary  pari  passu  with  the  breadth-index.    We 
have  clearly  a  population  of  mixed  Roman  subjects, 
gradually  being  infiltrated  by  Germans,  until,  after 
the  Roman  dominion  has  come  to  an  end,  the  Mar- 
comanni,  now  called  Bavarians,  come  in  en  masse. 

Now  look  at  the  modern  population.  193  skulls 
from  the  crypt  of  St.  Michael's  Church,  mostly  of 
the  eighteenth,  some  of  the  seventeenth  perhaps, 
gave  an  index  of  8316.  The  forms  which  Von 
Holder  calls  Turanian,  and  which  according  to  him 
scarcely  appear  at  all  in  the  earlier  periods,  consti- 
tute a  very  important  element. 

Now  let  us  turn  to  Ranke,  whose  monograph  on 
his  countrymen,  the  Bavarians,  is  very  important. 
He  also  finds  for  the  modern  Bavarians  an  index  of 
S3.  Large  as  this  is,  it  is  exceeded  on  the  one  hand 
among  the  people  of  Michelfeld  in  upper  Franconia', 


Scandinavia,  Central  Europe,  France.      105 

who  are  of  Slav  descent  and  dwell  in  a  hilly  dis- 
trict; and  again  in  the  Bavarian  highlands  and  in 
the  Tyrol  generally,  except  in  some  valleys  known 
to  have  been  colonised  by  the  Alemanni,  among 
which,  it  is  curious  to  note,  is  the  Protestant  Ziller- 
thal.  There  are  places  in  the  Tyrol  where  it  rises 
to  85,  or  even  higher,  according  to  Frizzi. 

Ranke  finds  but  one  leading  type  in  Bavaria 
proper,  which  he  describes  minutely,  and  which  may 
be  familiar  to  many  who  have  never  been  in  Bavaria 
or  Tyrol,  through  the  paintings  of  Defregger.  It  is 
the  cuboid  form.  Von  Holder's  Rhaeto-Sarmatic, 
KoUmann's  broad-headed  long-faced  type.  But  in 
Franconia,  outside  the  old  Roman  boundary  wall  at 
Ebrach,  whereas  the  average  head-breadth  sinks  to 
78*9,  he  finds  nearly  half  the  heads  display  a  true 
Germanic  type,  though  not  exactly  the  Hohberg 
one ;  and  the  curve  of  breadth  gives  one  maximum 
at  73  and  another  at  83.^ 

What  seems  strangest  is,  that  if  we  draw  out  a 
similar  numerical  curve  corresponding  to  the  indices 
of  a  large  number  of  Bavarians,  we  do  not  find 
evidence  of  two  unconformable,  or  at  least  as  yet 
unconformed  races.  On  the  contrary,  the  curve  is 
fairly  regular.  Ranke,  who  is  a  believer  in  external 
agencies  and  in  transformation,  and  thinks  that  life 
among  mountains  in  some  unexplained  way  tends 
to  shorten  and  widen  the  head,  says  that  in  the 
modern  Bavarians  a  German  face  has  been  married 
to  a  brachykephalic  braincase.    He  does  not,  I  think, 

'  See  illustrative  diagram. 


106     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

anywhere  commit  himself  to  the  statement  that 
this  broad  head  represents  another  race;  but  most 
men  would  have  no  doubt  about  that.  Anyhow, 
the  mixture  must  be  wonderfully  complete,  quite 
otherwise  than  in  Wirtemberg,  for  Ranke  finds  that 
the  average  head-breadth  in  blonds  and  brunettes  is 
precisely  identical. 

In  Bohemia  all  the  ancient  skulls  are  long  and 
narrow,  some  to  an  extraordinary  degree ;  and  this 
is  the  case  in  the  neolithic  and  bronze  ages  also. 
There  is  something  in  the  general  contour  of  all 
those  which  Weisbach  figures,  which,  though  the 
measurements  come  out  very  much  like  those  of 
Graverow  Germans,  makes  me  think  them  Galatic : 
they  are  less  elliptic,  more  lozenge  or  coffin-shaped, 
the  brows  less  arched  and  prominent.  Moreover, 
Galatic  they  ought,  I  think,  to  be:  the  Boii,  who 
were  either  Galatic  or  Keltic,  or  a  mixture  of  the 
two,  occupied  Bohemia  in  those  days.  After  them 
the  Marcomanni,  the  ancestors  of  the  Bavarians  on 
the  spear  side,  had  a  transitory  occupation.  The 
modern  inhabitants,  Czechs,  i.e.,  Slavs,  have  large, 
broad,  cuboid  skulls,  with  an  average  index  of 
83'6.  I  recollect  asking  Professor  Rokitansky 
whether  the  Czechs  were  not  brachykephalic. 
Rokitansky  was  himself  a  Bohemian,  and  he  was 
evidently  nettled  by  a  question  which  he  thought 
touched  upon  a  weak  point  in  his  fellow-country- 
men. "  Ah !  well ! "  he  said,  "  they  are  a  very 
clever  people  for  all  that." 

In  Austria  proper,  and  the  German  territories 
south  of  it,  few  very  ancient  crania  have  been  found. 


Scandinavia,  Central  Europe,  France.      107 

Those  of  the  famous  early-iron  age  station  of  Hall- 
stadt,  in  lower  Austria,  have  yielded,  on  an  average 
of  7,  an  index  of  73.  They  are  probably  Galatic; 
but  the  archaeological  history  of  the  Hallstadt  dis- 
coveries is  still  much  debated.  These  long  crania 
may  have  been  those  of  the  ruling  caste  only. 

Austria  has  been,  ethnologically,  a  sandbank 
washed  to  and  fro,  east  and  west,  by  the  tides ;  and 
these  have  been  latterly  tides  of  Bavarians  on  the 
one  hand,  and  Avars  and  Magyars  on  the  other,  with 
a  kind  of  by-wash  of  Slavs  from  north  and  south. 
The  modern  population  is  nominally  German  ;  but 
is  apparently  as  mixed  as  might  have  been  expected. 
Zuckerkandl  found  in  different  ossuaries  the  follow- 
ing respective  breadth  indices: — 84'7,  82'4,  81"7, 
78'4.  And  Weisbach,  who  probably  dealt  with  the 
Viennese,  who  are  certainly  more  Germanized  than 
the  peasantry,  puts  the  index  at  811. 

The  highest  index  here,  847,  is  that  of  the 
mediaeval  and  modern  people  of  Hallstadt.  And 
Zuckerkandl  asserts  confidently,  after  an  exhaustive 
examination,  that  the  cranial  type  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Hallstadt  has  not  varied  since  the  twelfth  century. 
This  looks  something  like  a  crucial  instance.  The 
Hallstadtians  must  surely  have  advanced  somewhat 
in  civilization  and  intellectual  development  since 
the  twelfth  century;  yet  their  heads  are  none  the 
broader  for  it;  on  the  other  hand,  it  would  be 
difficult  to  say  they  were  much  further  advanced 
in  the  twelfth  century,  an  age  of  barbarism,  than 
when  they  produced  in  prehistoric  times,  those 
beautiful  and  elaborate  works  in  bronze  and  iron 


108     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

which  we  call  Hallstadtian ;  yet  their  skulls  grew 
wider  in  the  interim  by  more  than  11  per  cent. 
Surely  there  was  here  a  substitution  of  one  race  for 
another,  not  a  mere  development.  And  we  may 
recollect  that  the  very  fountain  of  brachykephalism 
lies  not  far  to  the  south,  in  Illyria. 

Hungary  is  another  seething  place  of  races  and 
nations,  but  from  the  character  of  its  physical 
geography  has  always  attracted  equestrian  and 
pastoral  hordes.  The  most  curious  find  of  ancient 
skulls  there  has  been  that  by  Dr.  Lipp,  at  Keszthely 
on  the  Plattensee.  The  conjectural  period  is  the 
latter  part  of  the  fourth  century.  He  found  the 
long  skulls  of  a  tall  stalwart  people,  evidently 
Germanic  (Quadans  or  Vandals.'')  and  those  of 
another  race,  short-statured  and  robust,  with  curved 
legs  and  many  signs  of  badly  united  fractures;  their 
heads  were  long,  foreheads  low  and  narrow,  occiputs 
broad,  and  cheekbones  prominent.  These  Fligier 
takes  to  have  belonged  to  the  equestrian  Sarmatians 
(the  Jazyges),  and  to  show  a  mixture  of  Iranian 
with  Ugrian  or  Ural-Altaic  blood. 

The  modern  Hungarians  are  a  handsome  people, 
of  short  stature,  with  round  heads,  broad  cheek- 
bones, and  generally  dark  hair  and  eyes,  and,  I 
should  say,  with  more  of  the  Turkish  than  of  the 
Finnish  aspect.^  But  the  Szeklers  of  the  Trans- 
sylvanian  mountains,  a  remarkably  intelligent 
people,  mostly,  I  believe.  Unitarians,  and  claiming 


^  Ibn  Fozlan  says,  "  Chazari  Turcis  (by  which  he  means  the  Ugri) 
similes  non  sunt :  nigrum  capillura  habent." 


Scandinavia,  Central  Europe,  France.      109 

to  be  the  purest  Hungarians,  have  more  of  the 
Finnish  facies.  The  country  of  Jaszag  by  its  name 
recalls  the  Sarmatian  Jazyges  just  now  mentioned, 
some  remains  of  whom  may  perhaps  still  be  con- 
stituents of  its  population. 

Returning  to  the  north  of  Germany,  it  may  be 
repeated  that  as  a  general  rule  the  skulls  of  pre- 
historic or  early  date  are  long,  whether  they  are 
supposed,  from  archaeological  evidence,  to  be  Ger- 
manic, Slavic,  or  Lithuanic.  The  evidence  is  not 
so  cogent,  or  rather  so  abundant,  in  the  case  of  the 
Slavs,  as  they  frequently  resorted  to  cremation. 
Great  internal  migrations  have  taken  place  in  the 
historical  period  within  the  limits  of  North  Ger- 
many, but  no  great  immigration  of  any  race  not 
previously  represented.  Yet  evidence  seems  to 
point  to  a  change  in  the  physical  type. 

The  modern  Poles,  at  least  in  the  south,  are  a 
fair  race  on  the  whole,  but  of  short  stature,  with 
broad  heads  (82*4).'  All  through  Prussia  the  mixed 
Slavo-German  race  is  said  to  incline  to  brachy- 
kephaly,  though  perhaps  less  so  towards  the  coast. 
West  of  the  Elbe,  in  Westphalia,  for  example,  there 
seems  to  have  been  little  change;  but  the  Wends  or 
Slavs  in  Luneburg  run  up  to  82,  as  Slavs  ought  to 
do,  though  they  be  but  a  little  isolated  handful. 
The  dwellers  in  the  flat  alluvial  lands  of  Holland 
have  as  a  rule  rather  broad,  flat  heads,  elliptic  in  the 
vertical  aspect,  cylindrical  from  behind,  often  some- 
what prognathous.     In  Zealand  (South  Beveland), 

*  Majer  and  Kopernitsky. 


110     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

the  average  of  certain  skulls  disinterred  from  a 
drowned  village,  victims  to  the  inundation  of  1530, 
actually  rises  to  85,  according  to  Sasse;  and  De  Man 
of  Middelburg  finds  something  like  it  among  the 
living;  he  thinks  these  brachykephals,  though 
ancient,  were  not  the  earliest  settlers  in  those  parts. 

Much  discussion  has  arisen  about  these  and  such 
like  facts.  Virchow  maintains  the  existence  of  a 
separate  Frisian  type,  broader  and  flatter  than  the 
ordinary  German  descended  from  the  Graverow 
men.  Von  Holder  disputes  this.  I  can  only  say 
now  what  I  have  said  already,  that  the  conditions 
of  soil,  water,  etc.,  in  the  islands  and  marshlands  of 
Holland  and  Friesland  might  well  be  believed  to 
influence  the  physical  development.  The  Beveland 
folk,  however,  may  not  improbably  be  the  remains 
of  an  ancient  tribe  of  brachykephals,  driven  into 
the  islands  by  the  Batavi,  or  by  still  earlier  invaders. 

As  for  colour,  complexion,  one  can  hardly  look  at 
Virchow's  maps,  the  result  of  the  gigantic  inquest 
carried  out  under  his  direction  on  the  school  children, 
without  coming  to  the  conclusion  that  both  latitude 
and  race  must  have  to  do  with  it.  Beginning  with 
Sleswick,  and  then  with  the  coast-line  generally,  one 
finds  a  pretty  regular  falling  off  in  blond  hair  and 
blue  eyes,  and  an  increase  in  dark  hair  and  brown 
eyes,  as  one  gradually  proceeds  southwards.  It  is 
more  when  one  looks  into  details  that  one  recognises 
the  influence  of  race,  when  one  sees  for  example 
that  Wurtemberg  is  fairer  than  Alsass  and  Bavaria, 
which  were  later  colonized  ;  and  those  who  are 
acquainted  with  the  minute  history  of  the  provinces 


Scandinavia,  Central  Europe,  France.       Ill 

of  Germany  can  point  you  out  numbers  of  instances 
of  that  kind,  but  not  such  sharp  contrasts  as  that 
between  the  Flemings  and  Walloons. 

Stature  is  another  point  of  race  difference.  The 
Wends  were  not  much  darker  than  the  old  Germans, 
it  would  seem,  but  they  were  not  so  tall,  while  the 
Frisians  were  taller  than  the  Danes  and  Low 
Germans ;  and  this  difference  follows  them  up  in 
the  parishes  or  cantons  which  they  respectively 
colonized  in  Mecklenburg  or  further  east.  One  in- 
vestigator thinks  that  elevation  of  level  has  to  do 
with  elevation  of  stature;  another  thinks  he  can 
show  that  rich  soil  is  more  operative ;  but  they  all 
agree  that  race  does  tell,  and  they  can  all  give  reasons 
for  their  belief. 

One  can  see  that  the  difference  of  latitude  between 
Schleswig-Holstein  and  Bavaria  may  have  something 
to  do  with  the  fact  that  the  former  had  80  per  cent, 
of  children  fair-haired,  and  the  latter  only  54 ;  (I  do 
not  say  that  it  has,  but  that  it  may  have) ;  but  surely 
it  is  not  the  cause  of  the  Schleswig  conscripts 
averaging  5  ft.  6'6  in.,  and  the  Bavarian  conscripts 
only  5  ft.  43  in.  In  Thuringia  again,  about  Erfurt, 
Reichel  finds  the  conscripts  average  1670  milli- 
meters (5  ft.  5f  in.).  That  is  for  the  Germanic 
Thuringians,  but  as  one  goes  eastward  there  is  a 
regular  decline  of  stature  as  the  Slavonic  element 
increases,  until  about  Halle,  where  the  peasantry  are 
Germanized  Slavs,  the  average  is  just  under  5  ft.  5  in. 
Yet  the  Halle  district  is  the  most  fruitful. 

As  for  the  permanence  of  hair-colour,  let  us  look 
again  at  Bohemia.    We  know  that  the  Germans, 


112     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

about  the  year  1000,  regarded  the  Slavs  as  a  people 
less  fair  than  themselves,  though  it  may  be  that  this 
opinion  did  not  refer  to  the  northern  Wends.  And 
we  know  that  Ibrahim  ibn  Jacub,  a  Jewish  traveller, 
who  wrote  about  a.d.  965,  found  the  Bohemians 
swarthy,  usually  with  black,  seldom  with  light  hair. 
Old  Bohemian  chroniclers  contrast  the  black  hair 
and  beards  of  their  countrymen  with  the  light 
colours  of  the  Saxons.  Since  then  Bohemia  has 
been  largely  colonised  by  Germans,  chiefly  from  the 
fair  Saxon,  not  from  the  darker  Bavarian  side.  And 
now  the  schools  are  divided  into  Bohemian  or  Czech, 
German,  and  mixed.  Well!  the  proportion  borne 
by  the  number  of  children  with  dark  hair  to  that  of 
those  with  light  hair,  amounts  in  the — 
German  schools  to  -  -  '718  dark,  1,000  light. 
In  the  Mixed  schools  to  -  1,398  „  1,000  „ 
and  in  the  Czech  schools  to  1,793  „  1,000  „ 
And  it  is  curious  that  of  35  Czechish  districts  the 
one  which  has  the  lowest  proportion  is  called 
Deutsch  Brod,  German  Brod,  doubtless  because 
there  was  once  a  Germany  colony  there,  which  has 
been  Slavonized  in  course  of  time  in  point  of  lang- 
uage, but  not  in  that  of  colour. 

As  France  is  the  country  in  which  anthropology 
has  been  most  zealously  cultivated,  and  whose  own 
material  has  perhaps  been  best  worked  up,  it  is  very 
difficult  to  compress  my  account  of  it  within  the 
necessary  limits,  and  I  shall  avoid  all  discussion  of 
difficult  points.  Belgium  will  be  best  included  with 
France. 

You  may  have  gathered  from  an  earlier  lecture 


Scandinavia,  Central  Europe,  France.      113 

that  before  the  neolithic  period  brachykephalic  as 
well  as  dolichokephalic  types  of  man  were  already 
domiciled  in  France.  The  dolmens,  which  in  the 
western  and  north-western  parts  of  France,  but 
especially  in  Bretagne,  are  very  numerous,  contain 
in  some  cases  only  long-headed  skeletons,  but  in 
others  there  is  a  mixture  of  the  types,  such  as  does 
not  occur  in  England  and  Scotland.  Whether  the 
long-headed  dolmen  builders  were  of  the  same  race 
as  the  older,  Cro-magnon  and  Solutre,  people,  is 
very  doubtful;  the  general  belief  is  that  some  of 
them,  at  all  events,  belonged  to  an  early  wave  of 
the  blond  northern  conquerors,  and  that  these 
passed  over  into  Africa  (where  dolmens  are  exceed- 
ingly numerous,  and  continued  to  be  erected  down 
to  a  late  period),  and  were  the  same  people  who 
appeared  in  the  Egyptian  wall-paintings  as  fair  and 
blue-eyed,  under  the  names  of  Tahen-nu,  Tamahu, 
and  Lebo  or  Lybians.  It  is,  however,  quite  con- 
ceivable that  the  "  swart  Egyptians,"  struck  by  the 
exceptional  occurrence  of  a  proportion  of  blonds 
among  their  Libyan  foes  (who  may  have  come  from 
Auress  or  the  Riff,  or  some  other  mountainous 
region  where  the  type  survives  to  this  day),  made 
use  of  the  peculiarity  to  distinguish  in  their  wall- 
paintings  the  entire  Libyan  race.  What  we  may 
really  be  certain  of  is,  that  the  old  long-heads 
mixed  with  the  short -headed  people,  of  whom 
probably  a  new  wave  had  come  in  from  the  east 
and  brought  with  them  the  domestic  animals  and 
some  of  the  arts  (though  here  again  I  am  lapsing 
into  the  dubious) — what  we  may  feel  sure  of  is  that 


114     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

much  amalgamation  took  place,  that  subsequently 
one  or  more  waves  of  blond  conquerors  came  in 
from  east  and  north-east,  and  overlaid  the  greater 
part  of  the  country,  and  that  when  the  Roman 
period  arrived  they  constituted  a  military  aristoc- 
racy, which  was  particularly  strong  in  the  north- 
east, i.e.,  in  Belgium.  This  blond  race  or  caste  was 
called  the  Galli,  Galatai ;  the  French  call  their  type 
the  Kymric,  and  mostly  believe  that  it  was  also  that 
of  the  Kimmerians ;  but  the  nation  was  that  of  the 
Kelts,  and  the  mass  of  it,  which,  without  much 
positive  evidence,  is  supposed  to  have  been  short, 
sturdy,  and  of  rather  dark  complexion,  as  it  is  now, 
is  spoken  of  by  the  French,  since  Broca's  time,  as 
Keltic.  This  it  is  important  to  remember.  Those 
who  think  the  blond  northern  long-headed  people 
were  the  original  fabricators,  or  even  the  importers 
into  Europe,  of  the  Aryan  language,  mostly  suppose 
that  they  imposed  it  at  some  time,  not  necessarily 
after  their  arrival  in  France,  upon  the  Kelts,  who  in 
such  case  must  have  previously  spoken  an  allo- 
phylian,  not  an  Aryan,  tongue.  If,  however,  this 
conversion  of  the  Kelts  to  Aryanism  took  place  in 
France,  it  is  quite  conceivable  that  they  had  previ- 
ously imposed  their  own  language  on  the  Iberians, 
or  Mediterranean  long -heads,  whom  they  had 
themselves  subdued  and  overlaid  already.  This 
suggestion  I  quote,  but  do  not  endorse. 

The  position,  then,  in  the  time  of  Caesar,  was  on 
this  wise : —  Beyond  the  Garonne,  and  along  the 
Pyrenees,  and  as  far  east  as  the  Rhone,  the  Aquit- 
anians,  an  Iberian  people.    In  the  corner  east  of  the 


Scandinavia,  Central  Europe,  France.      115 

Rhone,  the  Ligurians,  of  whom  more  presently. 
Throughout  the  mass  of  the  country,  from  east  and 
south-east  to  west  and  north-west,  pressing  across 
the  Garonne,  and  stretching  northward  beyond  the 
'Seine,  the  Keltic  nationality,  composed  as  before 
described.  North-east  of  them,  extending  almost 
or  altogether  as  far  as  the  Rhine,  the  Belgae,  in  whom 
the  Galatic  element  was  stronger  than  in  the  Kelts,  / 
and  who  were  beginning  to  be  pressed  upon  and 
interpenetrated  by  the  next  wave  of  blond  long- 
headed warriors,  the  Germans.  Finally,  on  some 
parts  of  the  course  of  the  Rhine,  tribes  thought  to 
be  German  rather  than  Galatic  had  already  estab- 
lished themselves  on  the  left  bank. 

Subsequent  changes  were  these : — The  Roman 
domination  may  have  somewhat  Italianized  the 
blood  in  particular  districts,  especially  about  the 
Mediterranean  coasts.  The  Kelts  probably  con- 
tinued for  some  centuries  to  gain  ground  on  the 
Iberians  beyond  the  Garonne.  The  blond,  or  as  the 
French  say,  the  Kymric  element,  had  probably  been 
considerably  diminished  during  Caesar's  conquests ; 
but,  as  the  empire  declined,  this  was  again  some- 
what increased  by  the  settlement,  especially  in  the 
north-east,  of  Germanic  captives  as  colonists. 

At  the  time  of  the  Volkswanderung,  almost  the 
whole  land  was  overrun  and  settled  on  by  several 
nations,  mostly,  but  not  all  Germanic.  In  some 
parts,  however,  the  occupancy  was  simply  military 
or  political.  The  Franks,  for  example,  Salian  and 
Ripuarian,  settled  thickly  in  Flanders  and  Brabant 
and  along  the  left  bank  of  the  Middle  Rhine  respec- 


116     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

tively ;  they  also  spread  in  a  thin  stratum  over 
most  of  the  country  north  of  the  Loire  and  of 
Burgundy,  and  somewhat  more  thickly  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Laon  and  Soissons,  but  scarcely 
at  all  in  Bretagne. 

The  Saxons,  following  the  Franks,  completely 
Germanized  Flanders  and  Brabant,  the  Frisians  co- 
operating. The  respective  shares  of  these  people  in 
the  work  are  difficult  to  appreciate,  but  Vander- 
kindere  has  made  the  attempt,  relying  chiefly  on 
the  analysis  of  local  names.  Saxons  also  settled 
numerously  about  Bayeux  and  Caen,  in  what 
afterwards  became  Normandy :  they  colonized  the 
peninsula  of  Batz  in  south  Brittany,  and  probably 
the  Isle  of  Ushant,  which  has  still  the  distinction  of 
producing  the  tallest  and  finest  breed  of  men  in 
Brittany.  The  Burgundians  settled  in  Savoy  ^  and 
in  the  Jura,  and  about  Geneva  and  Lyons,  and 
subsequently  in  the  country  which  still  bears  their 
name.  The  Visigoths  became  the  rulers  of  the 
whole  south  of  France,  and  gave  a  new  military 
aristocracy  to  many  parts  of  it,  not  however  to 
Auvergne,  where  the  Gallo-Roman  gentry  were  not 
displaced.  The  Franks,  though  they  became  politi- 
cally dominant  in  the  south  after  the  defeat  of  the 
Goths  at  Vouille,  do  not  seem  to  have  settled  there 
to  any  extent. 

Finally,  the  Norwegians  and  other  Scandinavians 
occupied  Normandy  in  large  numbers,  and  settled 


^ 


^  Probably  they  more  or  less  completely  abandoned  Savoy  subse- 
quently, as  no  trace  of  their  type  seems  to  be  found  there  now. 


Scandinavia,  Central  Europe,  France.      117 

also  in  the  north-east  corner  of  Brittany,  and  to  the 
south  of  the  Middle  Loire,  in  proportion  sufficient, 
perhaps,  to  leave  traces  in  the  local  forms  and  com- 
plexions. 

The  relations  of  stature,  head-breadth,  and  colour, 
have  been  carefully  studied  both  in  France  and 
Belgium.  In  the  latter  country  the  results  obtained 
by  observation  are  remarkably  clear  and  satisfactory. 
Vanderkindere  managed  to  effect  the  investigation 
of  the  colours  of  the  hair  and  eyes  of  the  school 
children,  and  found  that  the  line  of  demarcation 
between  the  blonds  and  the  brunettes  coincided 
pretty  closely  with  that  of  language.  The  Flemish- 
speaking  cantons  have  the  most  blonds,  the  Walloon- 
speaking  have  the  most  brunettes.  The  line  of  the 
division  runs  due  east  and  west,  a  little  south  of 
Brussels  and  a  little  north  of  Liege. 

Scarcely  less  satisfactory  are  Houze's  observations 
on  head -form,  which,  however,  do  not  extend  beyond 
provinces  to  cantons.  But  all  the  provinces  north  of 
Vanderkindere's  line  have  populations  with  longer 
or  narrower  heads  than  any  of  those  to  the  south  of 
it.  In  the  north,  or  Flemish  division,  the  range  is 
from  7670  in  Limburg  to  78'31  in  West  Flanders,  in 
the  south  from  78'51  in  Namur  to  8117  in  Belgian 
Luxemburg. 

Now,  of  course,  stature  ought  to  follow  the  same 
rules,  and  be  higher  to  the  north  than  to  the  south 
of  the  frontier  line  of  language.  And  so  it  is.  Every 
northern  province  stands  above  every  southern  one. 
Limburg,  the  most  purely  Germanic  and  the  most 
long-headed,  has  also  the  tallest  inhabitants  (1666 


118     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

millimeters =5  ft.  5*6  in.*),  and  Hainault,  which  has 
the  most  brunettes,  has  the  shortest.  The  rule  holds 
good  even  to  the  length  of  the  nose.  The  Flemings 
have  the  most  long,  the  Walloons  the  most  broad 
noses :  the  Bruxellese,  lying  in  Brabant,  but  nearer 
the  Walloon  border,  naturally  come  between,  but 
nearest  to  the  Flemings. 

The  point  of  stature  is,  I  think,  particularly  re- 
markable. Flanders  and  Brabant  are  flat,  damp, 
studded  with  unhealthy  manufacturing  towns; 
the  Walloon  provinces  are  generally  hilly,  breezy, 
agricultural  or  pastoral,  and  their  recruits  are  on 
the  whole  healthier,  and  fewer  or  quite  as  few  of 
them  are  absolutely  undersized;  and  stature  is 
of  all  hereditary  qualities  one  of  the  most  easily 
affected  by  media ;  and  yet  withal  the  Flemings  are 
on  the  average  taller  than  the  Walloons,  by  virtue 
of  hereditary  right. 

A  great  deal  of  work  of  the  same  kind  has  been 
done  in  France,  and  the  results  have  been  often,  but 
not  always  clear  and  satisfactory.  Edwards  pointed 
out  the  prevalence  of  his  Kymric  type — long  head, 
square  high  forehead,  long  high  nose,  fair  skin — the 
well-known  head  of  Dante  has  something  of  the 
form — in  the  north-east  of  France.  Then  Boudin 
and  Broca  proved  that  the  departments  in  which 
high  stature  prevailed  formed  a  compact  mass  ex- 
tending from  the  Straits  of  Dover  and  the  mouth  of 
the  Seine  to  the  Jura  and  the  Rhone,  while  those 

^  These  figures  refer  to  conscripts.  Full-grown  men  would  probably 
be  nearly  an  inch  taller,  perhaps  5  ft.  6.J  inches,  or  about  the  average 
height  of  southern  Englishmen. 


Scandinavia,  Central  Europe,  France.      119 

where  stature  was  lowest  were  aggregated  in  a 
central  mass,  for  the  most  part,  with  prolongations 
to  Brittany  and  the  Pyrenees,  while  the  departments 
fringing  the  Bay  of  Biscay  from  the  Loire  to  the 
Pyrenees,  and  those  bordering  the  Mediterranean, 
occupied  mostly  an  intermediate  position.  I  have 
spoken  already  of  the  double  maxima  of  stature 
discovered  by  Bertillon  the  elder  in  the  lists  of  the 
Doubs,  indicating  a  mixture  of  two  races,  one  of  the 
Keltic,  with  a  stature  of  about  5  ft.  4  in.,  the  other, 
presumably  Burgundian,  of  about  5  ft.  8  in.  The 
same  phenomenon  was  subsequently  discovered  in 
the  lists  of  several  of  the  northern  provinces,  such 
as  the  Oise  and  the  lower  Seine,  where  the  taller 
men  may  be  taken  to  represent  the  Galatae,  Franks, 
and  Normans.^ 

Next  followed  Topinard  with  his  great  inquest 
into  coloration.  On  the  whole,  its  results  are  not 
far  from  what  might  have  been  expected ;  of  those 
that  are  otherwise,  some  may  depend  on  the  personal 
or  local  equation  of  the  observers ;  though  Topinard 
guarded  himself  as  much  as  possible  against  this,  by 
issuing  to  his  assistants  standards  of  colour ;  others 
may  depend  on  migrations  or  settlements  anterior 
to  history,  or  which  have  taken  place  silently  and 
unnoticed  in  more  modern  days. 

The  north-west  and  extreme  north  come  first,  or 
are  most  blond ;  then  the  north-east  and  the  region 
of  the  Jura,  then  Brittany,  the  Isle  of  France,  Savoy, 
Berry,  the  Creuse,  the  Charente,  then  most  of  the 

^  Lagneau,  Anthrapologie  do  la  France,  p.  41.     See  diagram. 


120     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

centre  and  west  centre,  the  Alps,  etc.,  then  Poitou, 
Aquitaine  and  Languedoc  and  Auvergne,  finally 
the  Pyrenees,  Provence,  and  Corsica. 

Of  anomalies  the  most  curious  is  the  rather  high 


position  of  Creuse,  which  is  certain  though  unex- 
plained. Morbihan,  too,  stands  second  in  the  whole 
list,  which  I  can  hardly  understand,  unless  there  are 
portions  of  it  very  different  from  the  parts  about 
Auray  which  I  have  visited.  The  Veneti,  its  old 
inhabitants,  were  said  to  be  Belgic ;  but  Caesar,  as  I 
have  told  you  already,  says  he  exterminated  them. 

Thirdly  comes  Collignon's  investigation  of  the 
headbreadth,  extending  also  to  every  department. 
The  resulting  maps  differ  more,  perhaps,  from  those 
of  stature  and  colour  than  these  two  differ  from 
each  other ;  for  of  the  three  great  race-divisions  of 
France  the  true  Celts  are  intermediate  in  colour, 
but  stand  perhaps  last  in  stature,  while  they  have 
by  far  the  broadest  heads.  On  the  map  of  head- 
breadth,  therefore,  they  distinguish  themselves  most 
clearly.  They  occupy  the  entire  east  of  France,  the 
maximum  of  breadth  being  found  in  the  Jura,  with 
a  secondary  maximum  in  the  Cevennes.  One  pro- 
longation is  pushed  across  the  Upper  Garonne  to 
the  Western  Pyrenees,  another  into  Touraine,  Maine, 
and  Brittany.  The  southern  coast  is  occupied  by 
the  long-headed  Mediterranean  race,  which  is  at  its 
purest  in  Corsica  and  Rousillon ;  while  the  northern 
long-headed  race  streams  in  from  the  Flemish 
frontier,  as  far  as  Normandy  and  the  Isle  of  France. 
But  there  is  another  comparatively  long-headed 
area,  including  eleven  departments,  of  which  the 


Scandinavia,  Central  Europe,  France.      121 

Gironde  and  the  Cher  are  the  two  extremes  in  local 
position,  and  which  can  Only  be  supposed  to  repre- 
sent the  primitive  long-headed  (say  Cro-magnon) 
race,  only  moderately  crossed  by  the  Celts,  and 
somewhat  reinforced  by  the  northern  blonds. 

Taking  the  three  maps  together  (those  of  Boudin 
and  Broca  of  Topinard  and  of  Collignon)  we  get 
this  impression.  First,  that  there  is  a  short  dark 
long-headed  race,  which  was  aboriginal  or  else  came 
in  across  the  Pyrenees ;  this  is  the  Iberian  or  Medi- 
terranean, and  is  most  pure,  I  repeat,  in  Rousillon 
and  Corsica.  Secondly,  a  short,  thick-set  rather 
dark  and  broad-headed  race,  which  streamed  in 
from  the  east,  from  the  side  of  the  Alps  and  the 
Jura,  and  so  to  the  west-north-west  and  west-south- 
west, towards  Brittany  and  the  Pyrenees.  Thirdly, 
a  tall,  blond,  long-headed  race,  which  came  in  from 
the  north  and  north-east,  and  also  to  some  extent 
by  sea.  This  one,  crossing  with  the  second,  has 
produced  the  tall,  blond,  short-headed  people  of  the 
north-east  (Lorraine,  Burgundy  and  Tranche  Comte) 
and  crossing  with  the  first,  to  a  less  extent,  may 
have  helped  to  produce  some  unexplained  phenom- 
ena in  the  west.  There  are,  of  course,  sub-divisions 
and  sub-types  also,  but  these  we  have  not  now  space 
to  consider. 

Those  who  are  disposed  to  make  much  of  the 
influence  of  external  agencies  may  note  that  in 
France,  as  elsewhere  in  Europe,  the  roundest  heads 
are  found  in  the  mountainous  districts.  Of  the 
provinces  of  France,  Brittany  has  been  especially 
studied  by  Broca,  Guibert,  Collignon  and  Chassagne. 
9 


122     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

Here  it  is  pretty  clear  that  the  blond  people  arrived 
on  the  sea-coast,  and  thence  filtered  in  along  the 
most  easy  channels,  in  some  cases  along  the  Roman 
roads,  with  the  result  that  at  present  the  small, 
swarthy  round-headed  breed  is  found  most  pure  in 
the  central  moorlands.  De  la  Bourdonnais,  return- 
ing from  travelling  in  the  Himalaya,  says  these 
Bretons  are  Mongoloid ;  ^  and  Renan,  also  a  Breton, 
when  he  visited  a  Lapp  encampment,  saw  there 
types  of  women  and  children,  traits  and  customs, 
which  woke  up  in  him  his  oldest  memories.  There 
must,  he  thought,  have  been  intermixture  between 
some  branches  of  the  Celts  and  some  race  resembling 
the  Lapps.  "My  ethnic  formula  for  the  Breton 
would  be,"  he  adds,  "  a  Celt,  mixed  with  a  Gascon, 
and  crossed  with  a  Lapp." 

In  the  Aveyron,  the  Rouergue,  or  land  of  the 
Rutheni,  where  Collignon  finds  a  breadth  index  of 
83*50,^  Durand  de  Gros  says  that  all  the  ancient 
skulls  found  are  long  and  narrow.  The  peasants 
now  have  invariably  broad  skulls,  but  the  educated 
townspeople  have  not ;  ^  moreover,  while  the  peas- 
ants are  dark,  the  country  squires,  probably  of 
Gothic  descent,  are  generally  fair. 

All  these  facts  may  perhaps  be  explicable  on  the 
theory  of  permanence  of  types ;  the  ancient  skulls 


^  Voyage  en  Basse  Bretagne,  etc.     Paris,  1892. 

2  Reduced  from  the  living,  as  usual. 

*  Lapouge,  in  the  Herault,  and  Ammon  in  Swabia,  find  long  heads 
prevalent  in  the  past,  in  towns,  in  the  upper  and  cultivated  classes, 
short  heads  in  the  present,  in  the  country,  in  uncultivated  plebeians. 


^ 

?> 

N 

?1 

K 

•^ 

N 

K 

•^ 

Vf> 

N 

CO 

h- 

f? 

Q. 

•^ 

CC 

S: 

O 

•^ 

CO 

c^ 

z 

^ 

o 

o 

^ 

•^ 

z: 

R: 

o 

•^ 

2: 

n? 

^ 

UJ 

C 

•~. 

a: 

Lu 

"C; 

^ 

^ 

c:- 

—— 

.Qi 

N 

•^ 

50 

LU 

cn 

GC 

c: 

is 

TD 

•>. 

H- 

«r 

Ho 

1- 

CO 

"1^ 

1 

^ 

Li- 

'v. 

0 

CO 

>- 

UJ 

^ 

> 

c^ 

a: 

i5 

3 

0 

if) 

?0 


if> 


\^ 


i 

1 

)i 

h 

y 

'1 

1 
1 

S" 

f  1 

/ 

4 

/ 

/ 

A 

/ 

1 
t 

/ 

/A 

d 

f 

r 

[/ 

1 

/ 

/ 

/ 

\f* 

* 

y^ 

\  i 

ft 

/] 

■  I  ' 

r 

1 
1 

f 

j 

W 

^ 

\       \ 

\ 

^ 

fc 

^ 

% 

^ 

\ 

^1 

^\ 

V 

^ 

\ 

0^ 

\ 

\ 

r^\ 

u 

A     ■ 

K^.\ 

V 

\ 

\ 

i\ 

v^ 

\ 

^ 

\ 

S\ 

\ 

% 

\ 

I 


03 

N 

a 


5      o> 


03 

to 

c:: 

I 
I 
I 
I 
I 

I 


00 


<o 


<VJ 


Scandinavia,  Central  Europe,  France.      123 

preserved  may  have  belonged  wholly  to  a  ruling 
race,  who  were  Galatic ;  and  the  short  swarthy 
round-headed  peasantry  may  have  existed  on  the 
land  then  and  during  all  subsequent  revolutions. 
But  any  other  interpretation  involves  extreme 
difficulty. 


LECTURE   V. 


SPAIN,  ITALY,  AND  THE  BRITISH  ISLES. 

Spain  and  Portugal — De  A.ranza(li  on  the  Basques — Italy :  The 
Ancient  and  Modern  Romans — The  Sards,  purest  race  in 
Western  Europe — The  Jews ;  their  original  and  secondary  types 
— The  Gypsies — Brief  sketch  of  the  Races  of  Britain :  Specimen 
districts — Pembrokeshire — The  Isle  of  Man. 

rpHE  history  of  Spain  and  Portugal  is  for  our 
-*-  purpose  comparatively  simple,  so  far  as  we 
know  it.  The  famous  Gibraltar  skulls,  described 
by  Busk,  are  long  (75'2).  At  Mugem,  in  Portugal, 
certain  crania  reported  by  Oliveira,  and  believed  to 
be  quaternary,  yielded  the  usual  greatly  discrepant 
measurements.  Two  long  heads  averaged  a  breadth 
of  73-8,  but  three  other  skulls  gave  82'8, 86-9,  and  93'4 ! 
these  last  are  described  as  Mongoloid  or  Lappish 
in  form.  Later  specimens  are  mostly  long,  and  MM. 
Siret  and  Jacques,  who  disinterred  near  Almeria  a 
vast  number  of  the  early  metallic  period,  found  that 
most  of  them  were  of  that  modified  "Cro-magnon 
type  which  we  call  Iberian,  and  which  De  Quatre- 
fages  and  Hamy,  describe  thus:  "Large  volume, 
lengthened  form,  subpentagonal  shape  in  the  'norma 
verticalis,'  width  of  face,  low  or  vertically  com- 
pressed orbits,  long  and  narrow  nose  (leptorhine)." 
This  description,  with  little  modification,  would 


Spain,  Italy,  and  the  British  Isles.         125 

apply  to   a   great  many  Gaels,  whether   Irish   or 
Scotch. 

Subsequent  invaders  have  not  probably  altered 
the  type  very  much,  except  locally  and  in  certain 
classes.  We  do  not  know  much  about  the  Kelt- 
iberians ;  nor  whether  any  modification  of  the  true 
Keltic  type  can  be  found  in,  for  example,  Aragon  or 
Galicia.  ^  All  the  other  invaders  of  Spain  have  been 
dolichokephalic,  more  or  less,  whether  Carthagin- 
ians, Romans  (mesokephalic,  strictly  speaking),  Goths 
and  Suevians,  Saracens.  Of  these  last,  the  Berber 
element,  which  was  probably  larger  than  the  Arab, 
was  nearly  identical  with  the  Iberian  in  type,  differ- 
ing most  obviously  in  the  form  of  the  nose,  which 
is  shorter  and  broader.  The  Basques  have  been 
supposed  to  be  the  purest  specimens  of  the  Iberian 
race;  and  have  been  the  objects  of  much  scientific 
curiosity  on  that  account.  William  von  Humboldt 
thought  their  language  Turanian;  and  some  wicked 
fellow  seems  to  have  sent  to  Retzius  three  skulls, 
which  purported  to  be  Basque,  and  possibly  were  so, 
and  which  happened  to  be  most  Mongolically  round. 
Broca,  however,  got  possession  of  the  occupants  of  a 
churchyard  in  Guipuzcoa,  and  found  their  skulls 
were  rather  long  than  short,  but  in  the  manner 
called  occipital  dolichokephaly,  i.e.,  roughly,  with  a 
large  proportion  of  the  length  abaft  the  ears.  They 
were  capacious,  larger  than  ordinary  Parisian  skulls, 
and  on  the  whole  answered  to  the  Iberian  type,  as 
lately  described. 

^  Fifty  Asturians  had  a  breadth-index  of  79-0,  thirty-eight  Gallegos 
77*3.     See  note  further  on. 


126     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

Dr.  Telesforo  de  Aranzadi  y  Unamuno,  himself  a 
Basque  of  Guipuzcoa,  has  produced  a  careful  mono- 
graph on  the  physical  characters  of  his  own  people. 
I  may  mention  some  of  his  results.  He  finds  the 
index  of  headbreadth,  corrected,  111.  The  average 
stature  at  the  age  of  21  ranges  in  different  towns 
and  villages  from  1610  to  1680,  or  from  5  ft.  3  in.  to 
5  ft.  6  in.,  which  is  beyond  that  of  southern  France. 
He  finds,  per  cent.,  of  the  eyes,  19  blue,  3  gray,  17 
green,  18  greenish  hazel,  1  blueish  hazel,  41  brown ;  of 
the  hair,  23  blond  (rubio),  13  medium,  40  dark  brown 
(eastano),  24  black  (moreiio).  These  proportions  of 
colour,  having  been  noted  according  to  Broca's  scale, 
may  be  fairly  relied  upon,  and  indicate  a  greater 
tendency  to  blondness  (xanthosity)  than  might  have 
been  expected.  Moreover,  De  Aranzadi's  elaborate 
maps  show  that  the  blonds  and  blue-eyed  folk  are 
not  confined  to  the  ports  or  great  ways  of  communi- 
cation, where  recent  colonization  from  abroad  might 
have  been  suspected;  but  that  they  are  scattered 
pretty  uniformly  through  the  country.  Certainly 
we  have  not  here  arrived  at  the  focus  of  the  brun- 
ettes of  Western  Europe. 

In  the  graphic  curve  of  headbreadth  there  are  two 
distinct  maxima,  one  at  76  and  one  at  80,  or,  in  the 
skull,  after  reduction,  74  and  78,  indicating  probably 
that  there  are  at  least  two  elements  in  the  race. 
De  Aranzadi  thinks  that  there  are  three,  one  with 
dark  hair  and  eyes,  rather  narrow  head,  middle 
stature,  broad  mandible,  nose  often  concave — a 
second  with  green  or  greenish-hazel  eyes,  darkish 
brown  hair,  a  broad  head,  low  stature,  breadth  be- 


Spain,  Italy,  and  the  British  Isles.         127 

tween  the  eyes,  narrow  mandible ;  and  a  third  with 
blue  eyes,  light  hair,  narrow  head,  straight  narrow 
nose,  tall  stature.  He  supposes  the  first  of  these  to 
be  the  true  Iberian,  and  related  to  the  Berber,  the 
second  to  be  Ugrian  or  Finnish,^  the  third  to  be  a 
later  addition,  Kymric  or  Germanic;  and  he  evi- 
dently, but  cautiously,  indicates  the  conjecture  that 
this  last  is  related  to  the  accursed  race  of  the  Cagots, 
who  used  to  be  relegated  to  separate  hamlets  or 
villages,  and  had  a  separate  church  door  for  them- 
selves. '^ 


'  Some  would  say  Keltic.     It  is  common  in  Bretagne,  I  should  say. 

'De  Aranzadi,  with  De  Hoyos  Sainz  as  coUoborator,  has,  since  the 
delivery  of  these  lectures,  laid  a  foundation  for  the  physical  anthro- 
pology of  Spain,  which,  based  upon  observation  of  about  450  skulls, 
from  all  parts  of  Spain  except  the  east,  gives  hopes  of  general  sound- 
ness, though  the  smallness  of  the  numbers  from  certain  provinces  does 
not  allow  confidence  in  its  details.  Spain  resembles  Britain,  apparently, 
in  having  no  brachykephalic  province.  But  De  Aranzadi  and  De  Hoyos 
detect  the  influence  of  broad-headed  Keltic  invaders  on  the  native 
Iberian  breed,  especially  in  Asturias  and  Estremadura.  In  Asturias, 
where  it  is  greatest,  the  people  are  said  to  be  sturdy  and  thickest,  with 
brown  hair  and  eyes,  and  with  large  heads  averaging  79  in  breadth- 
index  (in  the  skull).  The  Berber  element,  brought  in  by  the  Moors, 
and  powerful  in  the  south  of  Spain,  is  discriminated  by  greater  breadth 
of  nose  from  the  true  Iberian.  Olovir  has  since  followed  with  his 
valuable  and  elaborate  memoir  on  the  kephalic  index,  which  confirms 
generally  the  conclusions  already  stated.  It  would  seem  that  the 
Keltic  invaders  of  Spain  must  have  entered  it  by  the  western  extremity 
of  the  Pyrenees  and  pushed  chiefly  in  a  western  direction.  The  east  of 
Spain  must  have  remained  pretty  purely  Iberian,  and  is  strongly 
dolichokephalic  to  this  day  :  the  centre  and  south  vary  locally,  but 
the  indices  are  either  dolicho  or  raeso.  The  types  were  probably  not 
much  affected  by  the  Carthaginian  and  Saracen  colonizations :  the  in- 
vaders were  largely  Berbers,  and  the  Semitic  Arabs  were  not  widely 
different..  The  extreme  length  and  narrowness  of  the  nose  in  the 
finest  Highland  type  of  face  is  mainly  attributable,  I  think,  to  the 
Iberian  element  in  them. 


128     The  A  nthropological  History  of  Europe. 

Portugal  has  long  had  a  peculiar  interest  for  us 
Englishmen.  It  was  with  English  aid  and  guidance 
that  she  won  her  independence  at  Aljubarotta,  the 
Portuguese  Bannockburn,  against  the  Castillians  and 
their  French  allies.  The  northern  Portuguese  are, 
I  believe,  much  like  the  Gallegos,  a  Keltiberian  race 
with  some  admixture  of  the  Germanic  Suevian,  who 
filled  in  the  North-west  of  the  Peninsula  the  role 
which  the  Visigoths  played  elsewhere.  But  the 
heroic  race  of  Lusitania,  the  conquerors  of  Brazil,  of 
Abyssinia,  of  Congo,  of  Mozambique,  of  the  Indies, 
were  exhausted  in  those  mighty  efforts;  and  the 
southern  Portuguese,  especially  the  townsfolk,  are 
said  not  only  to  be  largely  of  Moorish  and  Semitic 
blood,  but  to  have  greatly  degenerated. 

In  Italy,  as  in  most  other  countries,  the  skulls 
with  any  pretensions  to  quaternary  date  are  mostly 
long,  but  very  broad  ones  do  occur  among  them. 

A  little  later  a  number  of  skulls  found  in  various 
parts  of  North  Italy,  and  studied  by  Nicolucci,  give 
indices  running  up  to  very  high  figures,  and  have 
furnished  the  basis  for  the  construction  of  what  is 
generally  called  the  Ligurian  type,  a  very  broad 
form  resembling  the  Keltic,  but  distinct  in  facial 
features.  In  the  Bolognese  succeeded  each  other 
the  Umbrian  populations  (heads  broadish),  the  Et- 
ruscan (mesokephal,  about  77-78,  rather  Semitic  in 
appearance),  and  the  Keltic  or  Gallokeltic  (broader 
again).  The  modern  heads  are  yet  a  little  broader, 
and  better  developed  anteriorly.  But  about  Rome, 
Nicolucci  has  brought  out  a  striking  fact.  The  heads 
of  the  old  Romans  were  of  a  fine  type,  well  balanced, 


Spain,  Italy,  and  the  British  Isles.         129 

well  rounded,  yet  boldly  outlined,  full  alike  in 
temples  and  occiput,  giving  one  somehow  the  idea 
of  strength  and  practical  ability— at  least  one  thinks 
so.  But  their  main  dimensions  are  exactly  the  same 
as  those  of  the  modern  Romans. 

Ancients,  .  .  .  Breadth,  781.      Height,  73-8. 
Moderns,  .  .  .  Breadth,  78' 2.      Height,  73'2. 

No  advance  here  certainly ;  but  perhaps  one  might 
rather  have  expected  retrogression.  For  the  old 
crania  that  have  been  preserved  for  us  were  not 
those  of  slaves  and  proletarii,  whereas  the  modern 
ones  are  probably  for  the  most  part  of  low  class. 

The  history  of  Italy  is  that  of  successive  waves  of 
invasion  from  the  north,  mostly,  however,  spending 
themselves  in  the  north.  The  fertile  and  attractive 
Sicily  was  the  object  of  desire  and  prey  to  every 
ambitious  or  predatory  race,  from  the  Carthaginians 
and  Greeks,  to  the  Saracens,  Normans,  French,  and 
Spaniards.  But  in  Calabria,  Corsica,  Sardinia,  pro- 
bably the  first  occupants,  Mediterranean,  Iberian 
if  you  will,  are  still  the  preponderating  element. 
They  are  short,  dark,  well  formed,  and  decidedly 
long-headed.  In  Sardinia,  where  they  are  most 
free  from  admixture,  the  skull  breadth  averages 
72'8,  and  varies  little.  Nine  ancient  Sards  gave 
one  of  725,  practically  identical.  The  hair  of  the 
Sards  is  said  to  almost  always  black:  the  stature 
of  conscripts  at  twenty  years  is  but  5  ft.  2*6  in. 
(159  cm.^) ;  while  the  Sicilians,  of  more  mixed  blood. 


^  Livi.     This  seems  to  be  about  the  average :  it  varies  in  the  nine 
districts  from  5  ft.  1-3  in.  to  5  ft.  4  in. 


130     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

rise  to  5  ft,  3'3  in.  Throughout  Italy  the  stature 
may  easily  be  accounted  for  by  considerations  of 
race,  but  hardly  in  any  other  way.  Thus  the 
Piedmontese,  Kelto-Ligurian,  and  very  broad - 
headed  (83  to  89,  living  index)  are  short  (5  ft.  3'8  in. 
— 162  cm.),  the  Venetians,  mainly  lUyrian,  with  a 
little  of  the  Lombard,  are  broad-headed  too  (84*8 
to  85*5),  but  much  taller  (165  cm.^— 5  ft.  5  in.),^  thus 
resembling  their  neighbours  and  kinsfolk  on  the 
north-east  of  the  Adriatic.  In  the  south,  as  well 
as  in  the  islands,  narrow  heads  and  low  stature 
prevail,  though  the  stature  does  not  vary  exactly 
in  accordance  with  the  head-breadth.  There  are 
some  anomalies,  especially  in  Central  Italy,  which 
we  are  quite  unable  to  explain.  Thus  the  very 
highest  average  stature  (166'25 — 5  ft.  5|  in.)  occurs 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Lucca,  but  in  combination 
with  a  rather  long  and  narrow  head ;  while  on  the 
other  hand  there  is  a  district  extending  eastwards 
from  Gaeta  along  the  coast,  where  the  inhabitants 
combine  a  shorter  stature,  a  narrower  head,  and  a 
distinctly  lighter  colour^  than  those  obtaining  in 
any  neighbouring  district. 

This  may  be  the  best  opportunity  for  the 
consideration  of  the  physical  type  of  the  Jews. 
As  is  the  case  with  so  many  other  people  whom  we 
have  had  to  discuss,  the  two  most  usual  physical 
tests  of  race,  namely  head-breadth  and  hair-colour, 


^  Ridolfo  Livi,  Statura  degli  Italian!.    L'Indice  Cefalice  degli  Italiani. 

2  The  frequency  of  blonds  was  remarked  by  Dr.  Hodgkin  as  well  as 
by  myself.     The  area  was  that  of  the  Volsci,  I  believe. 


Spain,  Italy,  and  the  British  Isles.         131 

when  applied  to  the  Hebrews,  seem  at  first  sight 
to  result  in  complete  failure;  but  it  is  only  at  first 
sight.  The  Jews  are  generally  what  Huxley  calls 
melanochroi:  that  is,  they  are  white  men  with 
dark  hair.  But  there  is  everywhere  among  them 
a  proportion  of  blondes,  and  a  quite  notable  one 
of  red-haired  or  red-bearded  individuals.  As  for 
their  skulls,  there  are  two  well-marked  types; 
one,  and  probably  the  original,  is  the  one  we  are 
more  familiar  with :  it  is  long,  ooidal,  rather  narrow 
in  forehead,  and  resembles  the  Arabian  very  closely, 
as  might  have  been  expected.  The  other  is  larger 
and  much  broader,  and  is  found  chiefly  in  countries 
where  the  prevailing  Gentile  type  is  broad.  The 
natural  interpretation  of  these  facts  is,  that  the 
Jews  are  a  much  less  purely  bred  population  than 
they  are  generally  supposed  by  themselves  and 
others  to  be ;  and  that,  wherever  they  are,  they  take 
in  sufficient  of  the  surrounding  anthropological 
elements  to  assimilate  their  form  of  head  to  the 
prevailing  one.  The  former  of  these  statements  is 
doubtless  correct,  but  not  the  latter.  It  is  true 
that  there  have  been  periods  and  localities — the 
Gothic  period  of  Spain,  for  example,  that  of  the 
Khazar  empire  in  southern  Russia,  and  the  early 
period  of  Hungarian  history — when  proselytism 
prevailed,  when  conversions  to  Judaism  were 
common,  and  intermarriage  occurred  frequently. 
But  for  many  centuries  such  has  not  been  the  case 
unless  to  a  very  trivial  extent,  and  conversions  in 
the  other  direction  can  only  have  tended  to  Judaize 
the  Gentiles,  not  to  Gentilize  the  Jews.    The  facial 


132     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

features  of  the  race,  again,  are  very  characteristic, 
and  are  almost  as  universal  among  the  brachy- 
kephalic  as  among  the  dolichokephalic  Jews,  fining 
down  a  little,  but  still  noticeable,  in  the  blonde 
variety. 

Roughly  speaking,  the  Sephardim  or  Spanish 
Jews  belong  to  the  long-headed ;  the  Ashkenazim 
or  German,  Polish,  and  Russian  Jews  to  the  broad- 
headed  type;  but  not  only  the  Dutch,  but  the 
north  -  west  German  Jews  must  apparently  be 
counted  with  the  former:  thus  the  indices  of 
breadth  in  the  small  collections  of  Gottingen  and 
Amsterdam  are  both  77  or  78,  with  moderate 
elevation.  In  London,  Messrs.  Jacobs  and  Spielman, 
the  former  in  two  elaborate  papers,^  have  devoted 
attention  to  these  points.  Curiously  enough,  they 
seem  to  deem  it  needful  to  make  a  kind  of  apology 
for  the  presence  among  their  fellow-people  of  so 
many  longheads,  as  though  they  were  an  inferior 
race.  This  is  a  kind  of  sign  of  the  times :  the 
broader-headed  Ashkenazim  are  crowding  in:  for- 
merly the  Sephardim  were  the  more  respected, 
and  they  certainly  have  the  original  type.  The 
Italian  Jews  are  Sephardim,  and  those  of  the 
Levant  belong  to  the  same  class:  they  are  some- 
times blonde  and  often  red-bearded,  more  often 
than  is  the  case  with  any  other  of  the  numerous 
races  mingled  in  those  parts,  so  that  they  can 
hardly  have  acquired  this  character  from  their 
neighbours.     Ikow  found  the  index  of  breadth  in 

^Journal  of  the  Anthr.  Institute,  Vols.  15  and  19. 


Spain,  Italy,  and  the  British  Isles.         133 

the  Jews  from  south  of  the  Balkan  only  74*5.^ 
They  are  in  large  proportion  descendants  of  the 
Spanish  Jews,  once  so  numerous  and  influential 
in  that  country,  and  so  ruthlessly  persecuted  and 
expelled  by  the  Catholic  sovereigns :  most  of  these 
were  hospitably  received  by  the  more  tolerant 
Musalmans. 

Now  for  the  other  type.  It  is  not  recent,  for 
KoUmann  of  Basel  found,  in  a  collection  from  an 
Israelite  cemetery  of  mediaeval  date,  a  very  high 
index.  It  does  not  vary  up  and  down  with  the  index 
of  the  neighbours,  for  Majer  and  Kopernitsky  found 
it  81*5  in  Galicia,  whereas  that  of  the  Poles  is  82*4, 
and  of  the  Ruthenians  (Red  Russians)  82'3 ;  ^  and 
Stieda  and  Dybrowski  found  it  83  in  sixty -seven  Jews 
of  Minsk,  near  the  Lithuanian  frontier,  where  the 
index  of  the  natives  is  pretty  surely  less.  Ikow  in 
Russia  found  it  81'3,  Blechmann  something  more. 
It  is  evident  that  the  true  Syrian-Hebrew  type  is  in 
a  decided  minority.  The  Karaites  of  the  south  give 
an  index  of  83'3:  they  show  distinct  signs,  especially 
in  their  broad  flat  faces,  of  Tartar  admixture, 
probably  dating  from  the  time  of  the  Khazars, 
whose  Khan  with  many  of  his  people  long  pro- 
fessed Judaism,  and  that  as  early  as  the  eighth 
century.  The  breadth  of  the  skull  is  exaggerated 
in  the  Karaites,  as  I  believe  it  to  be  in  some  other 
little-suspected  cases,  by  the  use  of  a  cradle-board 
in  infancy. 

^Archiv  fur  Anthropoloffie. 

'  After  the  proper  deductions  for  the  soft  parts. 


134     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

There  is  not  time  to  discuss  the  facts  which  are 
cited  by  Ikow  from  Halevy,  and  which  indicate  that 
Jews,  coming  probably  through  the  Caucasus  from 
Babylonia  and  Persia,  were  already  in  Russia  in  the 
first  century  of  our  era,  and  that  the  type  which 
now  prevails  among  Russian  Jews  is  derived  from  the 
various  Assyrian,  Armenian,  Iranian  and  Caucasian 
people  among  whom  they  dwelt  and  proselytized 
during  the  centuries  after  the  captivity,  and  in  the 
course  of  their  northward  progress.  The  only  con- 
siderable difficulty  that  remains  is  the  occurrence  of 
the  broad  large  head  among  the  mediaeval  Jews  in 
Paris  ^  as  well  as  in  Basel.  Had  the  Russian  Jews 
already  begun  to  press  westwards ;  or  was  it  purely 
a  result  of  prosely tism  from  the  Kelts  ? 

As  for  colour,  there  is  an  approach  to  a  national 
type,  which  causes  the  Jews  to  rank  as  a  dark  race 
among  the  fair  people  of  northern  Europe,  but  as  a 
fair  one  in  the  Levant.  The  frequency  of  red  hair 
among  them  is  curious:  it  has  been  noted  almost 
everywhere,  though  it  is  nowhere  so  extremely 
common  as  some  would  have  us  believe.  But  there 
is  much  red  pigment  in  the  hair  of  all  Jews  whom  I 
have  examined;  though  usually  the  abundance  of 
dark  pigment  obscures  the  fact.  Jacobs  therefore 
suggests  that  the  flagrancy  of  red  hair  among  them 
is  due  to  some  defect  of  nutrition,  whereby  the 
common  dark  pigment  is  not  secreted.  This  ex- 
planation, so  far  as  it  is  one,  would  obviously  apply 
to  other  rufous  races  also.    I  long  ago  suggested^ 

^  Crania  Bthnica,  p.  513. 

"^Phys.  Char,  of  the  Jewish  Mace.     Ethnol.  Transactions. 


Spain,  Italy,  and  the  British  Isles.         135 

that  the  Jews  might  have  inherited  the  red  colour 
from  the  Edomites,  the  descendants  of  Esau,  who 
were  ultimately  incorporated ;  but  Jacobs  very  truly 
remarks  that  we  have  no  proof  that  the  Edomites 
were  red-haired.  The  redness  indicated  by  their 
name  may  have  been  the  colour  of  the  soil,  or  the 
tint  of  skin.  Professor  Sayce  has  put  forward  a 
most  plausible  conjecture.  The  Egyptians  repre- 
sented the  Amorites  as  red-haired;  and  their  remains 
were  almost  certainly  incorporated  by  the  Jews. 

The  history  of  the  Gypsies  should  be  interesting 
to  Scotchmen,  as  owing  to  the  character  of  the 
country  in  former  days,  which  rather  invited  those 
so  disposed  to  a  wandering  life,  Scotland  was  a 
favourite  resort  with  these  extraordinary  people. 
The  earliest  notice  that  we  have,  which  can  possibly 
refer  to  them,  is  the  account  given  by  Herodotus  of 
the  Sigynnae,  who  in  his  day  occupied  Hungary :  he 
gives  a  particular  account,  often  quoted,  of  their 
little  hairy  ponies,  not  fit  for  riding,  but  swift  in 
drawing  chariots.  The  names  Sigynnae  and  Zig- 
euner  must  assuredly  be  one  and  the  same :  it  is  not 
easy  to  explain  how  it  came  to  be  given,  after  the 
lapse  of  so  many  centuries,  to  a  people  having  no 
connection  with  the  one  which  first  bore  it ;  and  it 
is  curious  that  the  Gypsies  should  to-day  be  most 
numerous  precisely  in  the  old  territories  of  the 
Sigynnae.  The  difficulty  would  however  be  much 
greater  of  getting  over  the  statements  of  their  hav- 
ing first  appeared  in  Europe  after  the  ravages  of 
Tamerlane  in  India.  Their  presence,  and  numbers 
and  conspicuousness  in  Scotland  were  made  use  of. 


136     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

some  years  ago,  by  Mr.  D.  M'Ritchie,  who  wrote  a 
work  on  Scottish  ethnology,  in  which  he  treated 
them  as  the  remains  of  a  primitive  dark  race  (Allo- 
phylian,  perhaps,  rather  than  Turanian),  once 
numerous  and  even  powerful,  but  bearing  to  the 
civilised  inhabitants  the  status  of  outlaws,  a  kind  of 
relation  like  that  of  the  Iliyats  in  Persia  to  the 
Tajiks,  or  rather,  perhaps,  that  of  the  Bushmen  to 
the  other  inhabitants  of  South  Africa. 

The  ballads  and  traditions  about  Johnny  Faa, 
Lord  of  Little  Egypt,  and  the  Countess  of  Cassilis, 
are  curious: — 

'  And  we  were  fifteen  well-made  men, 
Altho'  we  were  na  bonnie ; 
And  we  were  a'  put  down  for  ane, 
A  fair  young  wanton  leddy.' 

Here  comes  out  the  popular  dislike  to  a  swarthy 
complexion,  with  a  testimony  to  the  unmistakable 
beauty  of  physical  frame  which  characterises  these 
people,  their  lithe,  light  graceful  bodies,  whose 
mould  was  formed,  centuries  ago,  in  a  warm  out- 
door climate,  but  remains  unaltered  in  the  damp 
chilly  north.  Their  complexion  does  not  seem  to 
have  changed  much :  apparent  exceptions  may  well 
be  ascribed  to  admixture  by  adoption.  Kopernitsky 
has  written  an  elaborate  paper  on  their  form  of 
head  and  face,  which  is  thoroughly  Indian.  The 
skull  is  oval,  rarely  elliptical,  the  forehead  being 
narrow  and  the  temporal  regions  flat,  so  that  the 
cheekbones,  though  not  really  wide,  stand  out. 
The  face  is  rather  long,  there  is  a  slight  degree  of 
prognathism  of  the  upper-jaw,  the  nose  is  long, 


Spain,  Italy,  and  the  British  Isles.         137 

narrow  above  and  gradually  and  regularly  widening 
downwards,  a  very  characteristic  feature.  The 
index  of  breadth  is  77'1,  of  height  75 — very  good 
proportions;  but  on  the  whole  the  skull  is  small. 

Now  at  last  we  come  to  the  British  Isles.  I 
find  it  impossible  to  put  into  a  lecture  what  I 
have  had  some  difficulty  in  compressing  into  a 
moderate-sized  volume.  I  will,  therefore,  simply 
give  a  very  brief  sketch  of  the  history;  and  then 
enter  into  some  details  regarding  a  few  specimen 
districts,  much  as  the  scholastikos  who  wished  to 
sell  his  house  exhibited  a  brick  from  it  as  a  sample. 
I  will  say  nothing  about  eoliths  or  their  hypo- 
thetical producers.  Any  opinion  I  may  have  of 
them  can  have  very  little  value;  and  they  cannot 
be  said  to  enter  into  the  domain  of  history. 

Britain  has  received  its  successive  populations,  as 
it  has  accepted  its  fashions,  from  the  neighbouring 
continent,  and  has,  therefore,  always  been  behind- 
hand in  these  respects.  We  had  our  palaeolithic 
men,  our  people  who  used  implements  of  unpolished 
stone,  perhaps  a  little  later  than  the  beginning  of 
the  rude -stone  period  in  France,  but  still  in  the 
time  of  the  great  extinct  mammals.  But  we  have 
no  absolutely  indubitable  osseous  remains  of  them. 
The  Galley  Hill  skull,  for  example,  is  dated  later  by 
some  people.  The  human  remains  discovered  in  the 
Cattedown  Cave,  near  Plymouth,  by  Mr.  Burnard, 
have  a  strongly  probable  palaeolithic  date,  and  a  by 
no  means  low  or  degraded  type.  Boyd  Dawkins 
thinks  our  palaeolithic  men  may  have  been  Eskimo, 

10 


\J 


138     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 


or  of  Eskimoid  type.  Did  their  posterity  survive 
in  these  islands?  I  believe  they  did,  and  do  still; 
but  he  thinks  otherwise,  and  his  opinion  is  of 
course  weighty. 

We  are  accustomed  to  say  that  during  the 
neolithic  period  there  was  but  one  race  of  men  in 
Britain,  that  whose  remains  have  come  down  to  us 
in  the  long  barrows  or  galleried  tumuli,  and  which 
has  been  frequently  described  by  anthropologists, 
generally  with  a  comparison  to  the  Basques.  They 
have  a  considerable  likeness  to  the  grave -row 
skulls:  their  breadth  index,  for  example,  is  about 
the  same:  thus  Thurnam  gives  it  at  about  71,  but 
Barnard  Davis's  figures  work  out  to  72"8,  which  is 
probably  nearer  the  real  average.  The  height, 
also,  as  in  the  Grave-row  type,  is  apt  to  exceed  the 
breadth :  the  length  often  or  usually  depends  more 
on  occipital  than  on  frontal  development.  Points 
of  difference  are,  that  the  outline  of  the  Grave-row 
or  Germanic  forehead,  in  the  vertical  aspect,  is 
usually  more  convex,  while  that  of  the  neolithic 
British  forehead  is  flattened  and  square :  the  Ger- 
man face,  too,  is  rather  more  apt  to  be  prognathous. 
To  your  own  townsman,^  Sir  Daniel  Wilson,  now 
of  Toronto,  is  due  the  credit  of  the  discovery  that 
the  primitive  longheads  in  Scotland  preceded  the 
broadheads,  and  were  probably  a  different  race. 
The  late  Dr.  Thurnam  afterwards  took  up  the  idea,, 
and  went  far  towards  proving  that  it  was  correct  for 


*  These    lectures    were    delivered    in    Edinburgh,   and    before    the 
lamented  death  of  my  friend. 


Spain,  Italy,  and  the  British  Isles.         139 

England  also;  and  his  name  is  more  generally  known 
in  connection  with  the  discovery. 

Now,  it  is  curious  that  Sir  Daniel  Wilson  selected 
— and  figured  in  his  beautiful  work  on  the  Prehis- 
toric Annals  of  Scotland — two  crania  as  specimens 
of  this  earlier  race,  in  both  of  which  the  frontal 
region  has  the  Germanic  rather  than  the  Ibero- 
British  form.  And  he  proposed  for  them  the  name 
of  kymbekephalic — boat-shaped — which  appears  to 
me  by  no  means  applicable  to  most  of  those  I  have 
just  called  Ibero-British.  It  was  intended,  I  take  it, 
to  imply  a  form  highly  convex,  rather  than  squared, 
in  forehead  as  well  as  occiput,  with  possibly  a  carina 
or  heel  running  along  the  sagittal  region,  and  giving 
it  a  roof-like  contour.  It  is  conceivable,  then,  that 
there  may  have  been  an  ethnic  difference  between 
the  neolithic  inhabitants  of  the  northern  and  south- 
ern parts  of  the  island;  the  former  may  have 
belonged  to,  or  at  least  may  have  resembled  the 
Canstatt  type  or  stock,  the  latter  the  Cromagnon. 
Mr.  Anderson,  however,  points  out  that  the  horned 
cairns,  so  numerous  and  remarkable  in  Caithness, 
are  present  from  north  to  south  of  the  whole  island, 
and  may  be  an  index  of  the  presence  of  one  race 
throughout.  Those  in  Caithness  have  not,  I  believe, 
yielded  measurable  crania,  except  one  from  the  cairn 
of  Get,  with  an  index  of  76'5,  figures  beyond  the 
usual  upper  limit  of  British  neolithic  people. 

Linguistic  evidence,  as  Professor  Rhys  has  shewn, 
indicates  the  presence  of  an  Iberian  form  of  speech 
in  ancient  Scotland ;  and  there  are  those  who  find 
traces  in  our  island  of  a  Turanian  speech,  but  no 


140     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

one  nowadays,  I  believe,  finds  any  of  a  prehistoric 
Teutonic  one.  Again,  the  cave-men  disinterred  by 
Boyd  Dawkins  in  North  Wales,  and  particularly  the 
skulls  from  Forth -y-chvkf^areu  figured  by  him,  seem 
to  me  to  differ  considerably  from  the  common 
British  neolithic  type,  not  merely  in  breadth  but  in 
physiognomy.  I  have  pointed  out,  in  my  book  on 
The  Races  of  Britain,  the  existence  in  our  modern 
population  of  two  distinct  types,  scattered  in  small 
numbers  over  a  great  part  of  the  west  of  the  British 
Islands.  These  I  call  Mongoloid  and  Africanoid : 
the  former  is  probably  descended  from  the  race  of 
Furfooz  in  Belgium ;  the  latter  may  be  an  Iberian 
variety;  but  its  prognathous  character  separates  it 
from  the  ordinary  long-barrow  type,  which  it  other- 
wise much  resembles.  It  presents,  as  a  rule,  blue  or 
grey  eyes  with  dark  curly  hair,  while  in  the  Mongo- 
loid type  the  eyes  are  brown  and  oblique,  and  the 
hair  brown  or  dark  and  straight.  If  the  absence  of 
the  latter  from  neolithic  interments  be  objected,  I 
must  answer  that  serfs  are  rarely  admitted  to  consort 
with  their  lords  either  after  or  before  death,  though 
occasionally  they  may  be  slaughtered  in  order  to 
accompany  a  chief  to  the  other  world. 

Next  came  the  race  which  in  these  islands  — 
not  elsewhere — is  identified  with  the  importers 
and  users  of  bronze.  It  was  robust  and  tall, 
according  to  Thurnam,  not  less  than  5  feet 
9  inches  (1752  m.m.)  in  stature,  though  some  later 
authorities  think  this  an  exaggerated  calculation, 
bony,  large-brained,  harsh-featured,  high -nosed, 
with  prominent  brows,  and  a  breadth  index  over 


Spain,  Italy,  and  the  British  Isles.         141 

80.  I  believe  Park  Harrison  to  be  right  when  he 
affirms  that  in  our  times  the  majority  of  people 
with  these  characteristics  have  light  hair  and  long 
adherent  ear-lobes.  They  resembled  the  Borreby 
race  of  Denmark,  and  the  Sion  or  Helvetian  race  of 
ancient  Switzerland,  though  with  somewhat  larger 
breadth.  And  men  of  this  type,  but  perhaps  gen- 
erally dark-haired,  abound  among  the  Walloons  of 
southern  Belgium.  Our  race  may  have  come  from 
Denmark  or  from  the  north  of  France,  or  from 
Belgium ;  and  it  may  have  brought  with  it  an  Aryan 
language  of  the  Keltic  species.  Deniker,  and  per- 
haps others,  find  a  resemblance  between  this  type 
and  the  modern  lUyrian  one ;  but  the  geographical 
remoteness  of  the  two  is  a  difficulty.  I  confess  I 
cannot  at  all  clearly  make  out  from  the  relics  of 
interments  a  Gaelic  and  a  Kymric-speaking  race. 
For  if  these  bronze-folk  brought  the  Gaelic  their 
descendants  ought  to  abound  in  Ireland,  which  I  do 
not  think  is  the  case  nowadays.  Perhaps  they 
may  have  been  the  ruling  race  there  for  a  time,  but 
have  been  gradually  worked  out  by  continual 
warfare  and  slaughter.  They  were  apparently  a 
permanent  breed  resulting  from  a  cross  of  the 
blond  longheads  with  the  Kelts,  and  this,  again 
crossed  with  the  Iberians,  seems  to  form  a  large 
element  in  our  Highland  population,  particularly,  I 
think,  in  Athol.  An  important  anomaly  occurs  in 
the  East  Riding  of  Yorkshire,  where  much  investi- 
gatory work  has  been  done  by  Canon  Greenwell 
and  Dr.  Wright,  and  especially  by  Mr.  Mortimer, 
founder  of  the  Driffield  Museum.    In  that  region, 


142     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

round  barrows,  instead  of  yielding  only  broad  skulls, 
seem  to  hold  long  and  short  ones  indiscriminately, 
and  the  owners  of  the  latter  seem  to  have  been  no 
taller,  if  even  so  tall  as  those  of  the  former. 

Mr.  John  Gray  thinks  he  is  able  to  separate  a 
distinct  short-headed  breed  who  buried  their  dead 
in  short  cists  and  who  were  of  short  or  moderate 
stature.  One  such  interment  was  found  at  Harlyn 
Bay  in  North  Cornwall,  among  a  community  of 
long  or  middle  heads :  this  was  probably  late  Keltic. 

What  and  how  many  may  have  been  the  subse- 
quent immigrations  from  Belgic  Gaul  we  have  no 
craniological  evidence  to  show.  The  practice  of 
cremation  is  no  doubt  to  some  extent  responsible 
for  this  lacuna.  Sir  Daniel  Wilson  thought  that 
another  long-headed  race,  which  he  called  Keltic, 
succeeded  the  bronze  folk  in  Scotland;  but  it  is 
likely  that  by  that  time  there  was  no  great  mass  of 
dolichokephali  left  in  Gaul  whence  these  could  have 
been  derived;  and  that  Wilson's  Kelts  were  the 
result  of  the  mixture  of  earlier  races.  Wilson's 
ideas  were  but  guesses ;  he  had  little  material,  but 
they  were  very  clever  guesses.  Of  the  colonization 
or  rather  conquest  of  Ireland  by  a  Keltiberian  race 
from  Spain,  though  I  strongly  believe  in  it,  I  am 
not  able  to  say  anything  from  this  point  of  view. 
It  is  in  Kerry  that  I  have  found  the  Keltiberian 
aspect  most  common.  With  the  Roman  occupation 
it  is  much  the  same.  The  racial  elements  which 
they  imported  must  have  extremely  mixed,  and 
probably  left  scarcely  any  permanent  traces,  though 
there  may  be  some  in  a  few  ancient  towns  such  as 


Spain,  Italy,  and  the  British  Isles.         143 

Gloucester  or  Leicester.  Among  relics  from  the 
Romano-British  villages,  our  knowledge  of  which 
has  been  so  much  increased  by  General  Pitt-Rivers, 
there  are  one  or  two  skulls  which,  in  the  opinion  of 
Dr.  Garson  as  well  as  of  myself,  show  Roman  or 
Italian  characteristics. 

It  may  be  doubted  whether  the  Anglo-Saxons,  at 
the  time  of  their  arrival  in  this  country,  which  I 
for  one  believe  to  have  been  in  the  fifth  century, 
were  anything  like  a  homogeneous  race.  The 
Frisians  were  largely  represented  among  them,  and 
the  form  which  Virchow  considers  Frisian  occurred 
among  them,  and  is  common  among  their  descend- 
ants still.  For  my  own  part,  I  doubt  whether  this 
broader  Frisian  or  Batavian  form  is  anything  but  a 
variant  of  the  ordinary  Germanic,  developed  perhaps 
under  peculiar  conditions.  At  Bremen  the  two 
forms  occurred,  according  to  Gildemeister,  in  the 
earliest  days  of  the  city.  Among  the  Anglo-Saxon 
crania  figured  by  Davis  and  Thurnam  (perhaps  I 
should  say  Saxon,  as  they  are  all  from  the  south- 
east of  England),  those  of  Wye  Hill,  Litlington,  and 
Brighthampton  exhibit  the  Grave-row  type,  those 
of  Harnham  and  Linton  and  Firle,  something  more 
of  the  broader  and  lower  Batavian,  with  the  more 
rounded  occiput;  that  of  Fairford  is  a  palpable 
mixture  of  the  Saxon  father  and  British  mother, 
the  former  giving  the  brain-case,  as  Davis  himself 
suggested.  John  Bull  is  of  the  Batavian  type :  the 
Grave-row,  that  of  the  barbarian  warrior,  is  perhaps 
rather  more  aristocratic ;  but  the  outlines  of  the 
former  may  be  connected,  as  Virchow  thinks  pos- 


144     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

sible,  with  the  obstinacy  and  love  of  freedom  and 
individuality  of  both  Frisian  and  Englishman. 
"  These  men,"  said  an  old  chronicler  of  the  Frisians, 
"  been  high  of  body,  stern  of  virtue,  strong  and 
fierce  of  heart:  they  be  free,  and  not  subject  to 
lordship  of  any  man;  and  they  put  their  lives  in 
peril  by  cause  of  freedom,  and  would  liever  die  than 
embrace  the  yolk  of  thraldrom." 

The  Scandinavian  invasions  increased  the  pro- 
portions of  the  blond  types  in  most  parts  of  England 
and  Scotland.  Perhaps  invasions  is  hardly  the 
appropriate  term,  for  in  some  cases  it  is  clear  that 
peaceful  and  gradual  colonization  followed  the  in- 
vasions and  ravages.  The  distinction  made  by  the 
Irish  between  the  Danes  and  the  Norwegians,  the 
former  of  whom  they  called  Black,  the  latter  White 
Strangers,  is  a  matter  of  curious  interest  and  diffi- 
culty. For  the  Danes  too  are  generally  light  com- 
plexioned,  though  dark  hair  and  eyes  are  not  so 
uncommon,  especially  among  the  women.  Frequent 
features  in  the  modern  Scandinavians  are  the  spade 
or  scutiform  outline  of  face,  with  rather  broad  (but 
not  prominent)  cheekbones  and  a  long  sweeping 
curve  of  the  lower  jaw:  this  is  very  notable  in 
Cumberland  and  in  Lewis,  for  example.  Some- 
times the  profile  is  classically  straight  and  fine. 
The  inion  (or  occipital  tuberosity)  is  apt  to  be 
placed  high ;  and  the  upper  part  of  the  occipital 
region  in  such  cases  has  not  the  projection  which 
it  has  in  the  Hohberg  type. 

Subsequent  to  the  Scandinavian  colonizations 
were  the  Norman  conquest  of  England,  the  so-called 


Spain,  Italy,  and  the  British  Isles.         145 

Saxon  conquest  of  Scotland,  the  Anglo-Norman 
conquests  of  Ireland  and  Wales,  the  infiltration  of 
the  south  and  east  of  England  with  French  settlers, 
especially  in  the  towns,  the  colonization  of  south 
Pembrokeshire  by  the  Flemings  and  west-country 
English,  that  of  Ulster  by  the  English  and  Scotch, 
the  later  French  wave  of  the  Huguenot  refugees,  in 
the  same  area  as  the  former  one,  and  several  less 
important  racial  movements.  The  tendency  of  the 
still  more  modern  movements  of  population  is 
chiefly  from  the  poorer  to  the  richer  districts:  thus 
the  Welsh  have  gradually  infiltrated  the  west  central 
and  the  Scotch  the  northern  parts  of  England,  the 
Highlanders  have  crowded  into  Glasgow,  and,  above 
all,  the  Irish  into  the  towns  of  Great  Britain.  On 
the  whole,  the  proportion  of  the  Teutonic  element 
and  character  in  the  Sassenach  has  been  lessened,  in 
the  south-east  by  the  intrusion  of  the  small  dark 
round-headed  Kelt,  and  elsewhere  by  that  of  the 
Kymry  and  the  Gael. 

I  will  now  proceed  to  examine  with  some  minute- 
ness two  or  three  specially  interesting  districts. 
The  ethnology  of  Pembrokeshire  is  perhaps  more 
complicated  than  that  of  any  other  part  of  the 
principality.  The  best  authority  upon  it  is  without 
doubt  the  work  of  Mr.  Edward  Laws,  The  History 
of  Little  England  beyond  Wales} 

We  have  evidence  there  of  the  presence  of 
the  usual  neolithic  stratum,  and  of  that  of  the 
brachykephalic    bronze    race,    but    very    little    of 

1  London  :  George  Bell  &  Sons,  1888. 


146     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

Roman  occupation.  Subsequently  to  the  close  of 
the  Roman  period  we  find  the  land  harassed  by 
the  incursions  of  the  Gwyddel  Ffichti,  the  Gaels 
from  Ireland.  Whether  the  people  thus  raided  on 
were  themselves  Gael  in  language  does  not  appear 
certain ;  but  if  they  were  not,  the  occurrence 
of  Gaelic  settlements  from  Ireland  becomes  all 
the  more  clear.  Kymric  influence,  however,  gradu- 
all  prevailed  in  the  matter  of  language,  and  must 
have  been  accompanied  by  a  considerable  infusion 
of  Kymric  blood,  which  was  not,  however,  suffici- 
ently powerful.  Laws  thinks,  to  bring  about  the 
absolute  enslavement  of  the  Gaels  and  Silurians,  as 
it  was  in  North  Wales. 

The  next  large  element  added  was  that  of  the 
Scandinavians.  We  hear  more  of  their  raids  than 
of  their  settlements,  but  there  were  occasions  when 
they  came  as  allies  of  the  Welshmen  against  Saxon 
or  Irish  enemies,  or  as  allies  of  one  Welsh  chieftain 
against  another.  Sometimes,  no  doubt,  they  settled 
down  as  traders,  or  made  their  fortunes  by  marriage, 
as  Kol  the  Burner,  of  Iceland,  was  about  to  do  (so 
we  learn  in  the  Njalsaga),  when  his  plans  and  his 
life  were  cut  short  in  a  Welsh  market-place  by  his 
avenging  countryman  Kari  Solmundson. 

Mr.  Laws  reckons  no  less  than  93  Norse  place- 
names  in  Pembrokeshire,  though  a  few  of  these  are 
in  my  mind  doubtful.  He  puts  the  question,  with 
respect  to  the  occurrence  of  the  terminal  "  ton  "  in 
conjunction  with  Scandinavian  personal  names  (as 
Herbrandston,  Lammaston)  whether  it  is  due  to  a 
contemporaneous    or    a    subsequent    immigration 


Spain,  Italy,  and  the  British  Isles.         147 

of  Englishmen.  I  should  think  it  was  probably 
contemporaneous.  Pembrokeshire  has  been  much 
ravaged  and  perhaps  depopulated  by  Irishmen  and 
by  so-called  Danes.  Ostmen  and  Irishmen  from 
Wexford  and  Waterford  may  have  been  filtering  in, 
as  their  kindred  seem  to  have  done  into  Cumbria 
from  the  Isle  of  Man,  while  in  alliance  with  them 
English  exiles,  fugitives  before  the  Conqueror  per- 
haps, nay,  possibly  relics  of  the  army  of  the  sons  of 
Harold,  may  have  settled  down  side  by  side. 

The  next  intrusive  elements  were  introduced  by 
the  Norman  conquest  of  Pembrokeshire,  and  in- 
cluded Anglo-Normans,  with  a  following  no  doubt 
partly  English,  but  very  largely  Flemish.  The 
extent  of  this  Flemish  colony  has  been  much  dis- 
puted ;  but  there  seems  to  be  distinct  evidence  of 
three  separate  settlements,  in  1107, 1113,  and  1155  or 
thereabouts,  and  although  numbers  of  the  colonists 
perished  in  desperate  and  repeated  struggles  with 
the  native  chieftains,  they  are  frequently  mentioned 
by  the  Welsh  chroniclers  in  later  times.  Giraldus 
Cambrensis  speaks  of  them  as  "  brave  and  doughty, 
hating  and  hated  by  the  Welsh,  well  versed  in 
commerce,  clever  woollen  manufacturers,  adventur- 
ers, ever  on  the  look-out  for  the  main  chance,  and 
willing  in  the  pursuit  of  it  to  undergo  fatigue 
and  danger  by  sea  and  land ;  in  a  word,  excellent 
colonists."  ^ 

All  these  settlements  took  place  chiefly  in  the 
southern  and  more  open  and  fertile  part  of  Pem- 

*Laws,  p.  115. 


148     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

brokeshire.  In  the  north-east  the  hilly  moorland 
region  of  Cemmaes  was  conquered  indeed  by  the 
Normans,  but  not  largely  colonised;  curiously 
enough,  their  dominion  there  seems  to  have  been 
seldom  disputed ;  but  matrimonial  alliances  soon 
turned  them  into  Welshmen,  and  after  a  few  gener- 
ations we  find  the  lineal  representative  of  the 
Norman  conquestor  bearing  the  very  Kymric  name 
of  Jevan  ap  Owen. 

But  in  the  south  the  results  of  the  continual  and 
savage  contests  were  probably  also  rather  unfavour- 
able to  the  colonists.  Not  that,  after  the  first 
arrival  of  the  Anglo-Flemings,  peaceful  admixture 
was  very  great,  but  that  in  warfare  of  that  kind  the 
more  civilised  people  could  suffer  more  heavily, 
their  castles  not  being  sufficiently  numerous  and 
strong  to  make  up  for  the  comparative  want  of 
natural  strongholds  in  their  more  open  country. 
Moreover,  their  territory  was  small  and  isolated, 
that  of  the  Celtic  speaking  enemy  comparatively 
large;  and  the  effects  of  immigration  are  generally 
more  notable  in  the  smaller  of  two  adjoining 
countries,  for  an  obvious  reason.  After  the  estab- 
lishment of  peace  landholders  with  Welsh  names 
begin  to  appear  in  the  south  of  the  country,  and  no 
doubt  their  presence  implies  that  of  dependents  of 
their  own  race  or  nation.  Meanwhile,  the  colonists, 
after  the  partial  conquest  of  Ireland  which  they 
accomplished  under  Strongbow  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  twelfth  century,  were  diminished  by  the  swarms 
which  they  sent  off  to  that  country.  There  the 
people  of  Forth  and  Bargy,  the  two  southernmost 


Spain,  Italy,  and  the  British  Isles.         149 

baronies  of  the  shire  of  Wexford,  who  speak  a 
curious  old-English  dialect,  are  doubtless  in  great 
part  descended  from  those  of  "  Little  England 
beyond  Wales" — a  swarm  from  a  young  hive,  a 
colony  in  the  second  degree.  The  line  of  division 
between  the  Saxon  and  the  Keltic  halves  of  Pem- 
brokeshire is  still  pretty  sharply  drawn,  and  has  not 
varied  far  for  centuries,  though  it  is  now  beginning 
to  recede.  It  runs,  or  did  run  not  many  years  ago, 
from  a  point  between  Roch  and  Brawdy  on  the 
north-east  side  of  St.  Bride's  Bay,  in  a  curve  convex 
to  the  north,  to  the  most  projecting  point  of  the 
Caermarthenshire  border,  passing  north  of  St.  Bos- 
wells  and  Bletherston.  South-east  of  this  projection, 
and  separated  by  it,  three  parishes  in  Narberth 
Hundred,  Llandewi,  Llanvalteg  and  Llampeter 
Velfry,  are  also  Keltic. 

Mr.  Laws  instituted  a  census  of  the  colours  of 
school  children's  hair  and  eyes,  and  was  successful 
in  securing  the  co-operation  of  fifty-two  school- 
masters, well  distributed  over  the  whole  country. 
The  number  of  children  examined  was  4,151,  of 
whom  1,350  were  in  Welsh-speaking  schools:  the 
method  employed  was  my  own,  the  children  being 
divided  into  fifteen  sets,  the  eyes  being  noted  as 
light,  neutral  or  dark,  and  the  hair  as  red,  fair, 
brown  or  neutral,  dark  or  black. 

This  is  the  method  which  has  been  adopted  by 
Topinard  in  his  great  census  of  the  departments  of 
France,  but  with  the  further  improvement  of  certain 
patterns  or  standards  indicating  the  shades  which 
are  to  be  characterised  as  neutral  or  medium  in  eyes. 


150     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

and  brown,  chestnut  (chatain),  or  medium  in  hair. 
This  plan  of  Topinard's  no  doubt  mitigates  the 
liability  to  eccentricities  of  the  observer  which  is 
the  great  and  not  wholly  avoidable  fault  of  the 
procedure,  and  which  I  denote  briefly  as  the  personal 
equation  of  the  observer.  Another  fault  is  this: 
though  the  colour  of  the  eye  does  not  change  much 
with  advancing  years  during  childhood,  the  colour 
of  the  hair  usually  changes  considerably.  Thus  red 
and  yellow  may  become  brown,  and  red  sometimes 
quite  a  dark  brown,  dark  brown  shades  may  become 
blackish,  and  many  browns  take  on  a  rather  darker 
shade.  It  follows  that  statistics  derived  from  child- 
ren cannot  be  usefully  compared  with  those  from 
adults,  nor  even  those  from  infant  schools  with 
those  from  advanced  classes.  In  the  present  case, 
however,  the  average  age  of  the  children  probably 
did  not  vary  much  in  the  several  schools. 

The  results  of  the  enquiry  were  not  exactly  what 
I  had  expected.  Mr.  Laws  and  I  had  both  looked 
for  figures  indicating  a  comparatively  large  excess 
of  dark  hair  in  the  northern  half  of  the  country. 
An  excess  indeed  there  was,  but  one  of  only  6  per 
cent,  the  proportion  of  dark  hair  being  in  the 
northern  or  Welsh  half  327  per  cent.,  in  the  southern 
or  English  one  26'6  per  cent.  The  excess  of  black 
hair  among  the  Welsh  is  indeed  large,  nearly  double, 
but  there  is  also  a  moderate  excess  of  red  and  fair 
hair,  with  a  great  deficiency  of  medium  shades,  and 
a  moderate  one  in  dark  eyes.  As  all  these  numerical 
relations  more  resemble  the  Irish  than  those  of  the 
Silurian,  or  south-eastern  Welshmen,  I  am  inclined 


Spain,  Italy,  and  the  British  Isles.         151 

to  diagnose  the  presence  in  North  Pembrokeshire  of 
a  very  large  Gaelic  element;  ^d  it  is  noteworthy 
that  Mr.  Laws,  like  Bishop  Basil  Jones,  had  arrived 
at  the  same  conclusion  from  totally  different 
grounds,  historical  or  philological. 

When  we  examine  the  figures  for  the  six  hundreds 
separately,  some  interesting  details  come  out. 
Castlemartin,  which  includes  the  peninsula  to  the 
south  of  Milford  Haven,  though  entirely  English  in 
speech,  comes  out  with  a  small  proportion  of  light 
hair.  This  is  not  really  strange,  however :  the  west 
country  English,  the  near  kinsmen  of  these  colonists, 
are  mainly  of  British  origin,  and  dark-haired.  The 
local  names  here  are  not  so  indicative  of  Scandi- 
navian or  Flemish  settlement  as  those  in  the  Hundred 
of  Roos,  around  Haverford-west.  Accordingly  Roos 
comes  out  with  a  large  proportion  of  light  and 
medium  brown  hair,  but  little  dark,  and  very  little 
black:  the  proportion  of  dark  eyes  is  also  rather 
small.  With  Roos  we  may  advantageously  compare 
Cemmaes  (pronounced  Kemmes),  which  occupies 
the  north-eastern  part  of  the  county,  and  owing  to 
its  poor  soil  and  rough  elevated  surface  has,  as 
before  noted,  been  little  disturbed  by  colonization. 
Cemmaes  has  154  more  of  dark  brown  hair,  in  100 
of  all  colours,  than  Roos ;  it  has  four  times  as  much 
of  black  hair,  three  less  of  fair,  and  16  less  of  medium 
brown  shades.  The  combinations  of  dark  brown  or 
black  hair  with  blue,  light  grey  or  dark  grey  eyes 
are  remarkably  prevalent  in  all  Gaelic  countries, 
belonging  perhaps  to  the  ancient  race  of  Cro- 
Magnon,  but  certainly  to  a  stock  long  ago  thoroughly 


152     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

incorporated  with  the  Gaels.  Of  these  combinations 
we  have  27'4  per  cent,  in  Cemmaes,  and  only  97  in 
Roos,  or  about  one-third ;  and  of  those  including 
black  hair  29  per  1000  in  Cemmaes,  and  only  2  per 
1000  in  Roos. 

Thus,  on  minute  analysis,  the  present  distribution 
of  colour,  though  not  very  striking  at  first  sight,  is 
full  of  meaning :  it  accords  well  with  the  probable 
history,  and  gives  us  additional  assurance  of  the 
potency  of  the  Norse  and  Flemish,  and  of  the  Ibero- 
Gaelic  or  Irish  element  in  Pembrokeshire,  which 
local  names  and  history  suggest. 

In  the  Isle  of  Man  the  problems  of  anthropology 
may  be  said  to  be  reduced  to  very  simple  forms. 
We  know,  in  fact,  nothing,  or  hardly  anything,  of 
the  prehistoric  anthropology  of  the  island ;  but  a 
great  deal  of  the  later  facts  bearing  on  its  race- 
history.  The  earliest  population  of  which  we  are 
aware  was  evidently  Gaelic  in  speech  and  in  myth- 
ology, and  with  the  exception  of  a  doubtful  and  in 
any  case  transitory  conquest  by  the  Northumbrian 
Angles,  it  has  scarcely  ever  been  interfered  with, 
except  by  being  overlaid  by  successive  strata  of 
Norsemen,  either  pure,  or  more  or  less  mixed, 
already,  with  Irish  and  Hebridean  Gaels.  The  pres- 
sence  of  certain  surnames,  as  Mr.  A.  W.  Moore  has 
shewn,  indicates  that  there  was  a  considerable 
immigration  from  Ireland  in  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, but  it  was  rather  Anglo-Irish  or  Ostman-Irish 
than  purely  Gaelic,  and  did  not,  probably,  alter  the 
race-proportions  materially. 

I  think  it  is  not  unlikely  that  at  one  time  the 


Spain,  Italy,  and  the  British  Isles.         153 

Norse  element  preponderated,  but  that  it  fell  back 
into  a  minority  owing  to  its  being  drained  away 
into  the  Norse  colonies  in  Cumberland,  Westmore- 
land and  Dumfriesshire.  Vigfusson  and  Savage,  in 
their  readings  of  the  Manx  Runic  inscriptions, 
whose  supposed  date  is  somewhere  about  a.d.  1200, 
find  18  Norse  names  of  men  and  5  of  women,  14 
Gaelic  of  men  and  3  of  women, — altogether  23  Norse 
to  17  Gaelic,  57  per  cent,  to  42 ;  but  the  persons 
commemorated  or  mentioned  were  doubtless  of  the 
wealthier  class.  As  Vigfusson  and  Savage  say, "  The 
speech,  we  believe,  was  all  along  bilingual.  The 
masters  would  speak  Norse :  the  law  and  all  public 
transactions  on  the  Thingwall  and  elsewhere  would 
be  in  Norse;  but  the  household  servants  would 
speak  Gaelic — just  as  we  find  English  and  Gaelic 
within  the  same  family  in  lona  and  the  Hebrides  at 
the  present  day.  At  the  separation  from  Norway 
in  the  thirteenth  century,  the  root  was  cut  off  from 
under  the  Norse  tongue,  and  the  Gaelic  obtained ; 
just  as  under  our  own  eyes  the  English  is  now 
supplanting  the  Manx  Gaelic." 

The  legal  arrangements  retained  much  of  their 
Norse  character,  but  the  language,  as  has  been  just 
said,  remained  Gaelic  with  a  little  admixture  of 
Norwegian  words,  and  the  place-names  were  in 
great  majority  Gaelic;  while  the  surnames  were 
mostly  pure  Gaelic,  and  the  remainder  Norse  Gaelic- 
ized ;  thus  Kewley  for  Macaulay  or  Olafson,  Corlett 
for  MacThorliod,  Qualtrough,  as  I  suppose,  for 
MacWalter  or  Waterson,  Corkhill  for  MacCorkill, 
for  MacThorketil  or  Thorkelson. 


154     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

The  only  Manx  crania  of  any  pretensions  to 
antiquity  which  I  could  see  or  hear  of,  were  two  in 
the  possession  of  Dr.  Clague  of  Castletown ;  they 
had  been  found  in  excavating  foundations  at 
Scarlett,  and  were  probably  mediaeval.  They  both 
showed  something  of  the  Gaelic  type ;  their  indices 
of  breadth  were  respectively  756  and  80*6. 

One  would  expect,  judging  from  these  data,  and 
from  the  length  of  the  period  which  has  elapsed 
since  any  new  element  of  consequence  has  been 
added  to  the  population,  to  find  in  the  modern 
Manx  folk  a  tolerably  homogeneous  type,  com- 
pounded from  a  Scandinavian  and  from  (what  I 
call)  the  Gaelic  type,  though  leaning  perhaps  rather 
more  towards  the  latter,  and  occasionally  varying 
into  pretty  pure  specimens  of  one  or  other  of  its 
elements.  Now  the  Manx  population  answer  pretty 
exactly  to  this  expectation  ;  they  are  just  what  they 
ought  to  be,  anthropologically.  There  is  a  good 
deal  of  likeness  between  them  and  the  Cumberland 
folk,  on  the  one  side,  and  between  them  and  the 
people  of  Lewis  and  Harris  on  the  other.  They  are 
tall  and  stalwart,  with  oblong  heads  yielding  an 
index  of  breadth  of  77'6;  in  that  and  in  other 
principal  measurements  their  heads  take  a  place 
between  those  of  Norwegians  and  those  of  Scottish 
and  Irish  Gael,  inclining  however  rather  more 
towards  the  latter.  The  greatest  difference  from 
the  former  comes  out  in  the  greater  length  of  the 
naso-inial  arc,  which  is  connected  with  a  greater 
prominence  of  brows  and  of  occiput,  as  well  as  with 
an  apparently  lower  position  of  the  inion.     The 


Spain,  Italy,  and  the  British  Isles.         155 

breadth  and  flatness  of  the  cheekbones,  flatness 
rather  than  prominence,  is  decidedly  Norwegian 
rather  than  Gaelic.  The  face  is  usually  long,  and 
either  scutiform  or  oval ;  the  former  is  the  outline 
most  prevalent  among  the  Scandinavians,  the  latter 
among  the  Scottish  Highlanders  and  Western  Irish. 
The  nose  is  almost  always  of  good  length ;  in  out- 
line it  is  oftener  straight,  less  often  sinuous  than 
among  the  Highlanders  and  Irish.  The  influence 
of  the  Norwegian  cross  is  shewn  also  in  the  colour 
of  the  hair.  Red  hair  is  not  frequent  nor  very 
bright ;  fair  and  light  brown  hair  are  very  common ; 
and  the  index  of  nigrescence  is  decidedly  lower 
than  in  most  parts  of  the  Highlands  or  of  Ireland. 
The  distribution  and  combinations  of  colour  have 
more  resemblance  to  those  found  in  some  other 
Scandio-Gaelic  districts  than  to  most  others  in  my 
schedules;  such  districts  are  Wexford,  Waterford^ 
some  of  the  islands  of  the  coast  of  Argyle,  and 
perhaps  the  Lewis.  But  the  exact  proportions  of 
hair-colour,  together  with  the  great  frequency  of 
neutral  eyes,  are  not  produced  anywhere  else.  Blue 
eyes  are  less  common,  I  think,  than  grey;  and  dark 
shades  of  grey,  varying  towards  green  and  brown, 
are  frequent.  What  are  called  "black"  eyes  are 
rare.  The  hair  is  pretty  copious,  straight  or  wavy, 
seldom  strongly  curled  or  very  brightly  coloured. 
I  measured  thirty-one  heads,  all  of  which  belonged 
to  people  of  long  local  descent.  If  called  upon  to 
classify  them,  I  should  say  that  out  of  the  thirty- 
one,  one  was  distinctly  Turanian  in  type,  one  be- 
longed to  the  British  bronze  race,  one  was  pretty 


156     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

purely  Iberian,  and  one  anomalous ;  that  one  was 
pretty  purely  Teutonic  (the  Grave-row  type  of  Ecker, 
the  Hohberg,  or  between  the  Hohberg  and  the 
Belair,  of  His  and  Rutimeyer,  the  Germanic  of  Von 
Holder),  and  that  three  more  were  very  nearly  so, 
while  at  least  four  presented  decided  Gaelic  types ; 
and  that  the  remaining  nineteen  were  what  I  have 
called  Scandio-gaelic.  Thus  amalgamation  of  the 
two  principal  constituent  elements  would  seem  to 
have  gone  so  far  that  nearly  two-thirds  of  the  popu- 
lation, if  I  may  judge  by  my  specimens,  belong  to  a 
newly  compounded  Manx  type,  while  the  remainder 
are  to  be  considered  as  reversions,  or  as  belonging 
to  the  original  elements,  which  have  hitherto 
resisted  amalgamation.  The  Turanian  and  two  of 
Gaels  belonged  to  the  secluded  southern  hamlet  of 
Craignish,  while  three  of  the  Teutons  or  Norsemen 
were  born  in  the  north  of  the  island.  I  have  little 
doubt  that  Craignish  was  a  habitation  of  thralls, 
and  my  Turanian  may  be  the  descendant  of  a 
captive,  brought  from  possibly,  Lapland  or  the 
White  Sea. 

Mr.  A.  W.  Moore,  whose  loss  the  island  has  had 
to  deplore,  produced  among  other  papers  one 
grounded  on  my  figures  and  on  the  local  nomen- 
clature, in  which  he  demonstrated  that  small  as  is 
the  island  the  race  type  has  not  become  homo- 
geneous everywhere,  but  that  the  Scandinavian 
element  is  still  more  potent  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  easiest  landing-places,  and  less  so  in  the 
rougher  or  more  remote  parishes,  the  "  back  blocks," 
as  an  American  might  call  them. 


LECTURE    VI. 


SCOTLAND, 
WITH  GENERAL  CONCLUSIONS. 

Considerations  of  special  districts,  such  as  Berwickshire,  an  Anglian, 
and  Ballachiilish,  a  Gaelic  locality — Difficult  and  doubtful 
points  in  British  ethnology — Possible  effects  of  urban  life — 
Growth  and  decline  of  races  and  types,  and  their  probable 
future. 

I. 

TN  considering  the  mediaeval  history  of  Scotland, 
^  one  meets  with  mysteries  ethnological  as  well 
as  political.  I  had  the  advantage  of  coming  after 
Professor  Rhys  in  this  Chair,  and  I  have  learned 
much  from  him ;  but  nevertheless,  it  remains  a 
mystery  to  me  how  the  Pictish  language  came  to 
disappear.  That  it  was  a  Keltic  dialect,  but  with 
Iberian  elements,  I  entertain  little  doubt ;  that  the 
language  of  the  majority  often  gives  place  to  that  of 
the  minority,  when  the  latter  has  some  decided 
advantage,  religious,  social,  or  political,  over  the 
former,  I  am  well  aware ;  but  here  it  is  apparently  a 
question  of  two  races  of  barbarians  on  something 
like  the  same  level,  so  far  as  we  can  see.  In  fact 
one  would  be  inclined  to  say  that  the  Brythonic 
language  of  Strathclyde  ought  to  have  had  the  best 
chance  of  the  three,  on  the  score  of  civilization.    I 


158     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

can  only  suppose  that  the  true  Scots  were  really, 
what  some  of  the  early  Irish  writings  and  traditions 
portray  them,  a  very  highly  gifted  race,  psychically 
as  well  as  physically,  and  that  this  superiority  told 
in  their  favour  in  the  linguistic  struggle,  in  spite  of 
the  difficulties  interposed  by  a  rugged  and  thinly 
peopled  country,  vexed  by  continual  wars  and  intes- 
tine dissensions. 

It  is  the  habit  of  a  decaying  language  to  hide 
itself,  as  it  were,  in  nooks  and  corners,  while  the 
advancing  tide  of  the  victorious  tongue  sweeps 
round  it ;  or  to  continue  to  exist  among  the 
commonality,  while  the  upper  and  more  energetic 
classes,  those  who  stir  and  push  and  make  history, 
show  no  sign  of  its  existence.  Thus  Chaucer's 
Skipper  of  Dartmouth  speaks  English  like  the  rest 
of  his  company;  one  would  never  imagine  from 
any  hint  given  by  Chaucer,  that  Cornish  was  spoken 
in  South  Devon  for  two  centuries  afterwards. 

Still,  I  was  surprised  when  Dr.  Christison  pointed 
out  to  me  the  passage  in  Burt's  Letters,  in  which  he 
says  that  he  had  been  informed  that,  before  the 
Union,  Irish  {i.e.,  Gaelic)  had  been  the  language  of 
Fife ;  and  that  after  the  Union  it  became  one  con- 
dition of  the  indenture,  when  a  youth  from  Fife 
was  to  be  bound  on  the  Edinburgh  side  of  the 
water,  that  the  apprentice  should  be  taught  "the 
English  tongue."  But  Jamieson,  in  a  note  to  the 
fifth  edition  of  Burt,  says  there  is  no  reason  to 
suppose  that  in  Fife  any  Keltic  dialect  had  been 
used,  during  the  last  five  centuries,  that  would  have 
been    intelligible    to    an    Irishman.     That    Gaelic 


Scotland,  with  General  Conclusions.        159 

lingered  long  behind  the  Ochills,  in  Strathallan,  I 
could  well  believe:  the  population  there  is  physi- 
cally much  more  Gaelic ;  and  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  since  which  there  have  been  no  great 
changes  of  population,  the  personal  names  in  a 
perambulation  of  Wester  Fedale,  near  Auchterarder, 
were  almost  all  Gaelic.  But  with  regard  to  Fife,  I 
am  disposed  to  think  Burt  was  hoaxed,  or  that  he 
misunderstood  his  informants. 

The  proof,  could  it  be  had,  that  Gaelic  had 
lingered  long  in  a  particular  locality  would  by  no 
means  show  that  the  proportion  of  Gaelic  blood 
there  is  particularly  large.  I  have  said  that  the 
Strathallan  people  were  largely  pre- Saxon.  They 
are  very  generally  dark  haired,  and  their  features 
correspond  to  their  colour:  yet  their  forefathers 
have  spoken  English  for  generations,  though  with  a 
Gaelic  accent.  The  people  of  Keith  and  Huntly 
speak  English;  but  dark  colours  prevail  among 
them,  which  is  not  the  case  in  the  lower  ground  of 
Moray  on  the  one  side,  or  of  Aberdeenshire  on  the 
other;  and  I  believe  them  to  be  mainly  of  Pictish 
extraction.  The  people  of  the  Ness,  in  the  north  of 
the  Long  Island,  have  spoken  Gaelic  from  time 
immemorial;  but  those  who  have  seen  them  (I 
regret  that  I  have  not)  with  one  consent  declare 
them  to  be  pure  Norsemen ;  and  I  can  testify  that 
even  south  of  them,  at  Stornoway,  the  strength  of 
the  Scandinavian  types  is  remarkable.  Whether 
Norse  was  ever  the  language  of  the  commonality  in 
the  Hebrides  is  very  doubtful.  Captain  Thomas 
thought  it  was.    Quoting  Vigfusson,  he  tells  us  that 


160     The  A  nthropological  History  of  Europe. 

the  poems  of  Orm  of  Barra  formed  part  of  the 
entertainment  at  a  banquet  in  Iceland,  1120.  The 
most  I  should  infer  would  be  that  the  islanders 
were  bilingual  in  the  same  way  in  which  England 
was  bilingual  in  the  twelfth  century,  or  in  which 
Wales  and  the  Highlands  are  bilingual  to-day,  while 
we  read  and  admire  the  poems  of  the  Welshman 
William  Morris. 

Some  of  those  migrations  which  have  most  effect 
on  physical  type  do  not  necessarily  affect  the 
language:  this  may  be  the  case  where  they  are 
gradual  and  long  persistent,  so  that  the  speakers  of 
the  original  tongue  are  able  to  assimilate  successive 
generations  of  new-comers. 

In  attempting  to  analyse  anthropologically  the 
population  of  Scotland,  one  is  met  with  a  difficulty 
common  to  several  countries  in  Western  Europe — 
England,  Ireland,  Spain,  Portugal,  Sardinia,  Sicily. 
Almost  all  the  elements  are  long-headed,  and  there- 
fore our  readiest  test,  except  that  of  colour,  almost 
fails  us.  It  is  the  one  of  which  I  have  made  most 
use  in  these  lectures,  as  being  the  most  accessible, 
and  as  having  been  so  much  developed  as  to  yield 
an  enormous  mass  of  data;  but,  as  will  have  been 
gathered,  I  think  its  special  importance  has  been  a 
little  exaggerated.  A  brachykephalic — short-head- 
ed— element  no  doubt  entered  Scotland  during  the 
period  of  bronze;  and,  as  I  have  already  stated,  I 
think  it  probable  that  a  Mongoloid  race  may  have 
been  amongst  the  earliest  occupants  of  the  country; 
but  neither  of  them  is  largely  represented  nowadays, 
at  least  not  in  the  material  I  have  collected.    The 


Scotland,  with  General  Conclusions.        161 

former  of  these  should  be  found  especially  in  the 
Brythonic,  the  latter  in  the  Pictish  districts.  Med- 
iaeval skulls  are  generally  neglected,  to  the  detriment 
of  ethnological  history.  But  Sir  Daniel  Wilson 
measured  12,  mostly  from  Edinburgh,  and  found  a 
breadth-index  of  786,  which  is  rather  high  for  these 
islands.  The  number  is  too  small  to  allow  for  any 
confident  deduction,  but  the  width  is  greater,  and 
most  of  the  other  measurements  less,  than  in  the 
series  of  what  he  calls  Keltic  (let  us  read  Gaelic) 
skulls,  with  which  he  compares  them.  Of  these 
latter,  by  the  way,  several  are  from  lona,^  and  it 
may  be  worth  while  to  note  again  how  often  finely 
developed  skulls  are  discovered  in  the  graveyards 
of  old  monasteries,  and  how  likely  seems  Galton's 
conjecture,  that  progress  was  arrested  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  because  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy  brought 
about  the  extinction  of  the  best  strains  of  blood. 

There  are  not  so  many  modern  Scottish  crania 
in  collections  as  one  could  wish.  Those  that  were 
available  were,  I  imagine,  almost  all  made  use  of  by 
Principal  Sir  William  Turner  in  his  most  valuable 
Contribution  to  the  Craniology  of  the  People  of 
Scotland,  which  is  likely  to  remain  the  standard 
work  on  the  subject.  It  includes  descriptions  of 
176,  for  the  most  part,  tolerably  perfect  crania,  most 
of  which  may  be  said  to  be  modern,  though  some 
are  mediaeval.  The  most  interesting  point  brought 
out  by  Sir  William  is  the  frequent  occurrence 
of  brachykephaly  among   the   upper  or  educated 

^  Average  index  of  5,  76*8. 


162     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

classes,  to  which  most  of  his  material  probably 
belonged.  This  applies  especially  to  Fife,  to  East 
Lothian,  and  to  other  parts  of  the  Eastern  Low- 
lands, but  not  to  the  West  of  Scotland.    Thus :— 


Locality. 

Number. 

Cranial  Index. 

N.  E.  Lowlands, ... 

6 

81-8 

E.  Lothian, 

15 

797 

Fife,           

16 

79.25 

Midlothian, 

59 

77-3 

Renfrewshire,     ... 

21 

757 

Highlands  and  Isles, 

13 

741 

But  it  may  serve  our  purpose  to  divide  the  Mid- 
lothian skulls  into  two  categories,  32  from  the 
towns  of  Edinburgh  and  Leith  would  yield  a 
breadth-index  of  78'4,  while  14  from  a  coast  village 
(not  further  described)  would  give  761,  13  from 
rural  districts,  751,  and  the  whole  27  extraurban 
skulls,  75*6,  not  much  beyond  the  limit  of  pure 
dolichokephaly. 

The  elaborate  investigation  of  the  asylum  popu- 
lation of  Scotland,  which  we  owe  to  Mr.  Tocher, 
may  help  us  in  the  appreciation  of  these  facts, 
though  of  course  there  may  be  a  little  hazard  in 
extending  an  argument  or  a  conclusion  from  the 
insane  to  the  sane.  Among  the  particulars  obtained 
by  Mr.  Tocher  was  the  kephalic  index  for  all  the 
individuals  observed,  and  of  course  the  mean  there- 
of for  each  district  asylum.  He  found  an  index  of 
78,  or  higher,  in  the  whole  north  and  north-east 
beyond  the  Tay  and  the  Grampians,  one  below  77 
in  Argyll,  and  intermediate  ones  in  the  remainder 
of  Scotland,  including  Fife  and  the  Lothians. 


Scotland,  with  General  Conclusions.        163 

I  have  extracted  from  Mr.  Tocher's  figures  (cor- 
rected as  usual  for  the  skulP)  the  proportions  of 
true  brachykephali  (80  or  more),  in  several  of  the 
asylums.    They  run  as  follows: — 


Argyll,  ... 

...    1-6 

Roxburgh, 

.    3-6 

Fife,       ... 

...    4-5 

Ayr, 

.    4-8 

E.  Lothian, 

...    4-9 

Edinburgh 

.    51 

Paisley, 

..    5-35 

Dumfries, 

.    5-9 

Midlothian, 

..    6-5 

Inverness, 

.    72 

Aberdeen, 

..    711 

Moray, ... 

.  11-2 

Banff,   ... 

..  12- 

Montrose,  &c., 

157 

and  seem  to  exhibit  his  results  in  a  very  striking 
form,  and  to  accord  generally  with  Sir  William 
Turner — but  not  in  the  details  relating  to  Fife  and 
East  Lothian,  nor  to  the  distinction  between  Edin- 
burgh and  its  rural  surroundings. 

Sir  William  attributes  most  of  the  material  in 
question  to  the  upper  or  educated  classes,  and 
though  chiefly  modern,  it  is  contemporary. 

Was  there  perchance  anything  in  the  environ- 
ment, say  in  the  eighteenth  century  or  thereabout, 
to  affect  the  forms  ?  It  is  not  likely.  Deformations 
may  be  and  are  practised  by  nurses  and  mid  wives 
which  escape  the  notice  of  the  scientific  observer; 
thus,  in  mid-Germany,  the  cradleboard  is  responsible 
for  much  of  the  brachykephaly.    But  there  is  no 


^That  is,  I  have  subtracted  2  degrees  in  every  case.  In  my  own 
opinion,  however,  this  is  too  much  in  the  case  of  brachykephali ;  so 
that  I  may  have  understated  the  proportion  of  short-heads.  Mr. 
Tocher's  figures  seem  to  confirm  Sir  WiUiam  Turner's  remark  that  in 
Scotland  the  short  have  generally  smaller  capacities  than  the  long- 
heads. 


164     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

trace  of  anything  of  that  sort  in  the  beautifully 
figured  crania  in  Sir  William  Turner's  memoir. 
There  are  other  factors  in  the  question  which  are 
just  conceivable,  but  that  is  all. 

I  have  a  few  observations  of  my  own,  or  under- 
taken at  my  instigation  by  the  late  Mr.  Hector 
Maclean,  which  do  not  yield  much  support  to  the 
idea  that  Scottish  heads  are  growing  wider.  I  will 
give  them  as  corrected  for  comparison  with  the  dry 
skull,  as  mentioned  in  the  note  on  the  preceding 
page. 

88  Isla  men,  by  Hector  Maclean,       -  77'3 

28  Colonsay,        do.  do.,  -  75'2 

18  Eyemouth  and  Burnmouth,  J.  B.,  74'7 

12  Berwickshire,  inland,  J.  B.,    -        -  75'9 

55  Highlanders,  various,  J.  B.,    -        -  74'2 

40  Educated  Scotchmen,  J.  B.,  -        -  75*3 

20  Other    do.       do.,        J.  B.,   -        -  75*5 
22  Scotchmen  of  superior  intellectual 

distinction,  ....  75'44 

50  Others,  mostly  upper  class,  -        -        75'67 

The  relative  breadth,  it  will  be  observed,  is  small, 
smaller  than  in  almost  any  part  of  the  continent  of 
Europe.  On  the  other  hand,  the  absolute  length  is 
great,  greater  indeed  than  I  have  found  anywhere 
else,  except  in  Hanover  and  East  Friesland,  and  it  is 
this  which  makes  the  breadth  appear  small:  the 
circumference  again  is  large  in  all,  though  inferior 
to  that  of  the  Hanoverians.  There  are  certain 
differences  between  the  four  classes  of  Scotchmen  : 
thus  the  Berwickshire  peasants  seem  to  have  slightly 


Scotland^  with  General  Conclusions.        165 

smaller  heads  than  the  fishermen  (the  contrary  is 
said  to  be  the  case  further  north  on  the  east  coast) : 
the  Berwickshire  fishermen  have  slightly  less  pro- 
minent brows,  their  heads  are  a  trifle  more  lofty, 
the  frontal  region  rather  more  developed,  and  the 
whole  base  of  the  brain  rather  broader  than  in  the 
Highlanders.  The  educated  Scotchmen,  who  were 
nowise  selected,  except  for  hereditary  or  personal 
intellectual  distinction,  and  who  came  from  all 
parts  of  the  country,  including  the  Highlands,  agreed 
more  with  the  Berwickshire  fishermen  in  their  pro- 
portions, but  their  foreheads  are  generally  broader 
and  their  heads  loftier. 

In  the  22  of  intellectual  distinction  these  differ- 
ences were  generally  more  marked,  and  the  average 
size  of  the  heads  was  distinctly  greater;  but  it  will 
be  observed  that  the  index  of  breadth  is  much  the 
same. 

Here  I  must  break  off  for  a  while  to  speak  of  the 
extensive  and  laborious  contributions  to  our  know- 
ledge of  human  coloration  in  Scotland  which  we 
owe  to  Messrs.  John  Gray  and  Tocher,  and  which 
they  have  made  since  these  lectures  were  delivered. 
They  cannot,  unfortunately,  be  very  profitably 
compared  with  my  own  contribution  to  Scottish 
ethnology,  as  they  were  made  fifty  years  later, 
during  which  period  it  is  quite  possible  that  even 
changes  of  type  may  have  resulted  from  the  en- 
bonization  of  the  population  and  from  other  social 
changes.  Moreover  my  work  was  concerned  with 
adults  and  with  certain  localities  selected  indeed 
but  somewhat  casually  so,  while  theirs  had  to  do 


166     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

with  children,  extended  to  the  whole  of  Scotland, 
with  small  exceptions,  and  was  carried  on  systemati- 
cally and  officially.  One  point  of  superiority 
however  remains  to  me :  all  my  observations  were 
made  with  my  own  eyes,  so  that  the  troublesome 
personal  equation  was  eliminated,  and  I  suspect 
that  many  of  the  Scottish  schoolmasters  were  dis- 
posed to  see  a  good  deal  of  dark  hair,  as  it  is  apt  to 
be  the  case  among  a  blond  people. 

On  the  whole  Messrs.  Gray  and  Tocher's  facts 
corroborate  my  conjectures,  though  not  always  in 
particular  localities.  They  show  a  fair  race-type  on 
the  Borders,  a  dark-haired  and  light-eyed  one  in 
the  Gaelic-speaking  west  and  north-west,  and  among 
the  Picts  of  Galloway,  and  a  comparative  absence 
of  dark  and  black  hair  among  the  eastern  Low- 
landers,  within  reach  of  colonization  from  the 
continental  Teutons.  Mr.  Gray  is  disposed  to  think 
the  characteristics  of  these  last  may  represent  to  a 
notable  extent  those  of  the  Picts.  Some  peculiarities 
in  dialect,  such  as  the  use  of  F  for  WH,  favour  this 
view ;  but  to  me  the  higher  kephalic  index  and  the 
general  aspect  of  the  people,  as  well  as  the  prevailing 
surnames,  seem  to  indicate  the  peaceful  infiltration 
of  Teutonic  settlers  from  the  Continent,  with  just  a 
sufficient  leaven  of  Anglo-Saxons  to  make  their 
language  predominant.  Galloway  was  not  always 
under  Pictish  rule  during  the  dark  ages:  there  was 
a  notable  period  of  Anglian  domination ;  but  the 
Picts  survived  there  eo  nomine,  longer  than  any- 
where else,  being  notoriously  conspicuous  at  the 
battle  of  the  Standard ;  and  what  little  evidence  we 


Scotland,  with  General  Conclusions.        167 

can  get  from  Sir  William  Turner  ^  or  elsewhere 
leads  one  to  think  that  a  low  kephalic  index  prevails 
among  their  descendants. 

To  return ;  in  colour,  which  I  consider  very 
important  as  a  race-test,  the  difference  between 
Eyemouth  and  Ballachulish  is  very  great,  almost  as 
great,  perhaps,  as  between  any  two  districts  in  the 
country.  The  proportions  of  light  and  of  dark  eyes 
are  not  very  different,  it  is  true;  but  the  neutral 
eyes  are  generally  light  hazel  or  hazel-grey  in  Eye- 
mouth, but  dark  grey  is  Ballachulish.  Black  hair  is 
quite  rare  at  Eyemouth,  and  among  the  Berwick- 
shire peasants  of  pure  breed  it  hardly  ever  occurs ; 
but  at  Ballachulish  it  is  in  the  proportion  of  10  per 
cent.,  and  often  occurs  with  blue  or  dark  grey  eyes. 
Altogether  the  hair  is  more  coloured  there,  more 
pigmented;  thus  the  blond  hair  (which  is  not 
uncommon  at  Ballachulish,  notwithstanding  the 
pronounced  tendency  to  blackness),  is  more  apt  to 
be  yellow,  while  in  Berwickshire  it  often  tends  to  a 
flaxen  hue,  which  means  deficiency  in  colouring 
matter.  How  far  this  has  to  do  with  differences  in 
the  atmospheric  moisture,  or  how  far  it  is  due  to 
peculiarities  fixed  in  the  race,  may  be  questioned : 
on  the  whole  it  seems  probable  that  red  and  yellow 
pigment  were  originally  developed  copiously  in  a 
moist  atmosphere,  but  that  the  tendency  to  their 
production  is  now  completely  fixed. 

The  Berwickshire  people  are  mainly  Anglian  by 
race :  it  is  probable  that  the  British  inhabitants  were 

^  He  figures  a  distinctly  Gaelic  type  of  skull. 


168     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

pretty  completely  expelled  at  the  time  of  the 
Anglian  conquest.  Some  Danish  and  Norse  blood 
was  introduced  under  Malcolm  Ceanmohr — later 
changes  have  not  been  great,  though  of  course  there 
has  been  a  slow  infiltration  of  the  general  Scottish 
population.  I  will  give  you  an  example  of  such 
immigration  from  a  tombstone  in  Foulden  church- 
yard, on  which  I  have  more  than  once  enacted  "  Old 
Mortality."  "  Here  lieth  ane  honourable  man, 
George  Ramsay  in  Foulden  Bastel.     .     .     . 

"  Fife  fostering  peace  me  bred 
From  thence  the  Merse  me  called. 
The  Merse  to  Mars  his  lawys  led. 
To  bide  his  battles  bauld. 
Wearied  with  toil,  and  sore  opprest. 
Death  gave  to  Mars  the  foil. 
And  now  I  have  more  quiet  rest 
Than  in  my  native  soil. 
Fife,  Forth,  Mars,  Mort,  these  fatal  four 
All  hale  my  life  hath  driven  o'er." 

There  is  every  agency  present  in  Berwickshire 
which  might  be  expected  to  develop  or  maintain  a 
fine  type  of  man.  The  original  stock  was  tall, 
handsome,  and  vigorous;  subsequent  crosses  have 
been  made  by  energetic  immigrants ;  natural  selec- 
tion may  have  assisted  during  centuries  of  border 
warfare ;  there  are  no  manufactories  in  the  district, 
or  hardly  any ;  finally,  the  soil  is  rich  and  fertile,  if 
that  has  anything  to  do  with  it;  and  a  somewhat 
harsh  and  cold  climate  probably  weeds  out  weakly 
people.  Accordingly  the  men  of  the  Merse  are 
among  the  finest  in  Britain.  Probably  the  average 
stature  is  about  5  feet  9  inches  (1752  millimeters); 


Scotland,  with  General  Conclusions.        169 

the  fishermen  are  not  so  tall  as  the  peasantry,  but 
25  of  the  latter,  of  pure  local  descent,  who  were 
measured  and  weighed  by  Dr.  Charles  Stewart  of 
Chirnside,  yielded  the  remarkable  average  of  5  feet 
lOi  inches  in  stature,  and  199  pounds  in  weight.^ 
Here  the  weight  exceeds,  though  the  stature  falls 
short  of,  the  huge  proportions  of  the  men  of  Balma- 
clellan  in  Upper  Galloway,  who  as  yet,  I  believe, 
hold  the  record  as  to  stature  among  all  tested 
communities  in  Europe.  The  majority  of  the  Merse 
men  have  straight  profiles,  long  heads  and  faces, 
prominent  occiputs,  cheekbones  and  brows  not 
conspicuous,  noses  nearly  straight,  fair  complexion, 
blue  or  grey  eyes,  and  lightish  brown  hair. 

Of  the  Ballachulish  people  it  would  be  more 
difficult  to  give  a  good  description.  They  are  much 
less  homogeneous  in  form  and  colour.  Though 
there  has  been  little  immigration  for  the  last  few 
centuries,  except  of  Highlanders,  there  are  various 
traditions  of  old  dealings  with  the  Norwegians. 
The  Macdonalds  of  Glencoe  had  been  islesmen,  and 
a  sept  called  Henderson  are  said  to  have  preceded 
them.  On  the  whole,  however,  the  probable  ele- 
ments of  importance  are  Iberian  (Pictish.?)  and 
Scotic  (shall  we  say  Keltiberian  or  Galato-Iberian  ?): 
there  is  little  sign  of  more  primitive  races.  A  long- 
headed dark  race  has  been  crossed  by  a  long-headed 
fair  one,  and  the  latter  has  been  a  little  reinforced 
by  the  Norsemen  ;  a  new  type  has  been  established, 
but  imperfectly,  and  reversions  are  frequent.  The 
moral  character,  the  speech  and  manners,  more  than 

^  86  millimeters  and  about  84  kilogrammes,  naked  weight. 

12 


170     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

the  complexion,  or  the  characteristic  forms  of  the 
level  brows  and  of  the  lower  jaw,  make  me  inclined 
to  think  that  the  Iberian  preponderates  over  the 
Gael  and  the  Goth. 

For  physical  descriptions  of  the  Highlander  I 
must  refer  to  the  papers  Sir  Arthur  Mitchell, 
Captain  Thomas,  and  Mr.  Hector  Maclean  of  Bally- 
grant.  All  had  paid  much  attention  to  the  subject, 
and  their  conclusions  do  not  differ  much.  All  agree 
as  to  the  importance  of  the  Iberian,  or  as  some  call 
it,  Spanish  element.  As  to  a  Finnish  one  they  are 
less  clear,  but  all  acknowledge  it  to  some  extent.  I 
believe  it  to  be  rather  considerable  in  Scotland ;  it 
may  possibly  have  been  brought  in  by  the  Nor- 
wegians, and  this  is  quite  likely  as  regards  the  dark, 
flat-faced,  almond-eyed  folk  who  occur  in  Shetland 
and  about  Barvas  in  the  Lewis ;  but  its  general  dis- 
tribution in  Scotland,  and  its  frequent  occurrence 
in  Wales,  make  me  think  it  of  far  older  date  in 
Britain  than  the  Norse  invasions. 

The  Brythonic  element  is  not,  I  think,  at  all 
strong  or  conspicuous  in  the  Western  Highlands, 
though  it  may  be  in  Perthshire.  The  parts  of  Scot- 
land in  which  one  would  look  for  it  with  most 
confidence  are  those  where  the  Strathclyde- Welsh- 
men longest  retained  their  power,  the  districts 
adjoining  the  long  range  of  hills  and  moorlands 
that  runs  from  the  heads  of  the  Clyde  and  the 
Annan  along  the  west  of  Lanarkshire  into  Renfrew- 
shire. These  would  include  Upper  Nithsdale,  Upper 
Galloway,  Kyle,  perhaps  also  Cunningham  and 
Renfrewshire;  but  of  these  last  I  have  no  personal 


Scotland,  with  General  Conclusions.        Ill 

knowledge.  What  seems  most  notable  in  the  people 
thereabout,  are  the  very  tall  stature  and  the  pre- 
valence on  the  whole  of  dark  hair.  The  schedule 
from  the  parish  of  Balmaclellan,  to  which  I  referred 
just  now,  which  was  published  in  my  work  on 
Stature  and  Bulk,  and  which  I  owed  to  Sir  Arthur 
Mitchell  and  the  Reverend  George  Murray,  ex- 
hibited both  these  characteristics  in  a  high  degree.^ 
I  regret  that  I  cannot  say  anything  about  the  head- 
form,  which,  if  known,  might  enable  one  to  speak 
more  confidently  of  their  racial  origin.  But  I 
incline  to  think  there  is  in  them  a  large  element  of 
the  same  kind  that  we  usually  find  in  round  barrows 
and  with  bronze  objects — the  race  that  was  once 
dominant  over  the  greater  part  of  the  British  Isles, 
and  whose  tall  stature  and  bony  angular  features 
are  here  reproduced.  I  do  not  know  how  long  the 
Brythonic  language  lingered  hereabout,  but  there  is 
a  little  testimony  to  its  long  continuance  which  may 
never  have  struck  you,  though  it  occurs  in  a  well- 
known  Scotch  ballad. 

"  An'  they  hae  had  him  to  the  wan  water, 
For  a'  men  call  it  Clyde." 

Why  did  they  call  it  Clyde  ?  Clyde  in  Welsh,  is 
pale  grey.  Lloyd,  the  personal  name  so  common  in 
Wales,  means  "grey."  Evidently  the  man  who 
composed  that  pathetic  ballad  knew  the  Kymric 
tongue,  or  how  should  he  have  known  that  Clyde 
meant  the  "  wan  "  water,  the  pale  grey  water. 

'  The  average  stature  of  the  75  men  measured  was  5  feet  10"4-6  inches, 
or  1790  millimeters ;  but  14  who  had  black  hair  attained  an  average  of 
1812  millimeters. 


172     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

II. 

We  have  now  traced  down  the  history  of  Europe, 
so  far  as  it  can  be  done  within  a  very  limited  space, 
from  the  earliest  known  vestiges  of  man  down  to 
the  present  day;  and  in  all  its  principal  divisions. 
We  have  seen  that  while  the  craniological  record  of 
prehistoric  ages  is  very  insufficient,  and  for  large 
portions  of  Europe  non-existent,  such  evidence  as 
we  yet  possess  goes  to  shew  that  the  dolichokephalic 
was  in  the  earliest  ages  the  prevailing,  and  perhaps 
the  only  type  of  man ;  but  that  there  were  possibly 
two  varieties  of  it.  Its  extreme  forms  seem  to  have 
been  connected  with  early  ossification  of  the  sutures. 

That  brachykephali  do,  however,  appear  in  the 
quaternary  period,  sometimes  accompanying  long- 
heads, sometimes  separately.  Where  they  occur 
conjunctively  they  do  not  give  one  the  impression 
of  being  mere  aberrations  or  of  pathological  origin, 
as  from  rickets  or  hydrokephalus  :  and  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  quaternary  period  they  may  be  provision- 
ally accepted  as  at  least  tribal  types. 

In  the  neolithic  period  we  find  them  constituting 
in  France  an  important  and  aggressive  race:  they 
mix  with  and  overpower  the  long-headed  type: 
they  appear  in  the  Swiss  pile-villages  and  about  the 
Alps,  and  may  be  conjectured  to  have  existed  in  mass 
much  further  east ;  but  of  this  there  is  little  or  no 
positive  evidence  until  later,  in  the  early  iron  age, 
though  in  the  age  of  bronze  they  conquered  most  part 
of  the  British  Isles ;  and  though  there  is  some  reason 
to  think  that  at  a  very  early  period  a  broad-headed 


Scotland,  with  General  Conclusions.        173 

race  was  represented  in  Scandinavia.  As  the  north 
becomes  peopled,  the  vigorous  race  which  fills  it 
sends  off  swarms  to  the  south  and  south-east ;  and 
this  progress  continues  until  it  is  temporarily 
arrested  by  the  consolidation  of  the  Roman  empire. 
After  the  Roman  dominion  has  passed  away,  we 
find  that  the  northern  longheads  push  southwards 
at  the  expense  of  the  brachykephals,  whom,  how- 
ever, they  rather  overlie  than  press  backwards. 
Soon,  however,  the  opposite  movement  begins  anew, 
and  is  supported  to  some  extent  by  the  invasions  of 
the  Turanian  type  from  Asia,  but  chiefly  by  the 
great  spread  of  the  Slavonic  peoples,  at  the  expense 
of  the  long-headed  Germans  and  of  the  Ugrian 
tribes,  who  were  at  most  of  mixed  type.  The 
Illyrian  race  has  meanwhile  been  invading  the  area 
of  the  Mediterranean  longheads,  and  the  Kelts  may 
have  done  the  same  to  a  less  extent. 

The  next  result  is  that  we  have  now  three  cranio- 
metrical,  if  not  racial,  areas  in  Europe,  without 
counting  the  Lapps  and  Finns  as  a  second  brachy- 
kephalic  mass,  in  which  case  we  shall  have  four 
such  areas.  Roughly  speaking,  the  broadheads 
occupy  most  of  the  mountain  regions  of  Europe, 
with  the  adjacent  territories,  to  wit,  the  central  hills 
of  Bretagne,  the  Cevennes,  the  Vosges,  the  Ardennes, 
the  Jura,  both  Swiss  and  German,  the  Alps  in  their 
whole  extent,  the  Pindus,  and  probably  the  whole 
Carpathian  system  with  its  western  prolongations : 
also  the  plains  of  Poland  and  Southern  and  Central 
Russia,  where  the  boundary  to  the  north  becomes 
blurred  and  indistinct. 


174     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

The  northern  or  blond  long-heads  occupy  the 
regions  north  of  those  already  mentioned,  except 
the  area  of  the  Lapps,  the  Quaens,  and  the  Karelian 
and  Tavastian  Finns,  who  are  all  brachykephalic, 
the  first  remarkably  so.  The  Tavastians  at  least, 
though  broad-headed,  are  a  blond  people.  There 
is  a  brachykephalic  spot  on  the  south-west  coast  of 
Norway,  which  may  be  primitive,  and  another  on 
the  isles  of  the  Scheldt  and  Meuse.  The  Southern 
or  Mediterranean  longheads,  including  the  Pyr- 
enees and  all  to  the  south  of  them,  part  of  Western 
France,  the  coast  of  Liguria,  apparently,  Corsica, 
Sardinia,  Sicily  and  Southern  Italy.  To  these  may 
be  added  parts  of  Greece  and  of  the  Greek  islands, 
and  of  Bulgaria ;  but  the  connection  of  blood  is 
doubtful  in  the  former  case,  and  non-existent  in  the 
second,  the  dolichokephalic  elements  in  Bulgaria 
being  Ugrian,  or  possibly  in  part  Thracian. 

Now  has  this  great  extension  of  the  brachyke- 
phalic area  been  wholly  due  to  conquest  or  col- 
onization ?  or  to  the  different  moral  qualities  or 
greater  fertility  or  hardihood  of  the  breed?  or  to 
any  influences  tending  to  actually  change  the  type, 
which  might  be  intrinsic  (elevating  or  civilizing)  or 
extrinsic,  such  as  the  hypothetical  influence  of 
mountain  habitation  might  be,  according  to  Ranke.'* 
There  is  a  collateral  problem  involved  with  this, 
that  of  the  supposed  increasing  prevalence  of  dark 
hair  in  Europe,  particularly  in  areas  formerly  occu- 
pied by  blonds,  and  the  causes  of  it,  if  the  supposition 
be  correct.  For  there  is  no  doubt  that  on  the  whole, 
in  the  northern  and  central  latitudes  of  Europe,  the 


Scotland,  with  General  Conclusions.        175 

longhead  and  the  blond  coloration,  the  broadhead 
and  brunette  coloration,  go  together.  This  is  the 
rule,  but  exceptions  are  very  numerous  and  exten- 
sive :  thus  in  the  island  of  Islay  and  in  the  west  of 
England,  Mr.  Maclean  and  I  have  found  the  rule  to 
be  reversed.^ 

With  respect  to  stature,  the  rule  is  still  more 
liable  to  exception.  The  blond  dolichoid  race,  as  a 
race,  is  much  taller  than  the  Slavokeltic  one;  and 
the  latter  is  thicker  of  make  and  heavier  in  pro- 
portion, but  that  is  almost  all  that  can  be  said  with 
confidence.  The  bronze  race  of  brachykephals  in 
England  was  remarkably  tall,  and  the  tallest  men  in 
Britain  are  found  in  a  comparatively  dark-haired 
area. 

To  return  to  the  problems  stated.  There  is  much 
more  evidence  which  could  be  brought  to  bear  on 
them  than  I  have  been  able  to  put  before  you  in 
these  lectures.  I  think  I  just  mentioned  the  in- 
crease of  size  in  the  heads  of  Parisians,  a  change 
not  accompanied  apparently  by  any  increase  in 
maximum  breadth,  but  depending  purely  on  an 
enlargement  of  the  frontal  lobe.  Even  this  may  be 
due  simply  to  a  gradual  process  of  selection;  the 
cleverer  people  in  all  ranks,  that  is,  those  with 
frontal  lobes  developed  beyond  the  average,  having 
been  attracted  to  the  centre  of  progress  and  the 
goal  of  ambition,  in  larger  number  than  their 
fellows. 

^  It  is  fair  to  note  that  in  Western  Britain  we  have  to  deal  with 
remains  of  the  southern,  or  dark,  as  well  as  of  the  northern  or  fair 
dolichokephals. 


176     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

The  extraordinary  change  which  has  apparently 
taken  place  in  southern  Germany,  and  of  which  I 
gave  some  details  when  speaking  of  that  country, 
admits  of  several  partial  explanations,  no  one  of 
which,  however,  is  per  se  satisfactory.  Thus  the 
general  exclusion  of  the  serfs  from  the  burying- 
grounds  of  their  masters,  in  the  days  of  grave-row 
interment,  must  be  allowed ;  but  it  is  strange  that 
it  would  seem  to  have  continued  even  after  the 
introduction  and  prevalence  of  Christianity. 

Von  Holder  lays  great  stress  on  the  wars  of  the 
old  Swabians  and  Bavarians  with  the  Slavs,  Avars 
and  Magyars,  to  the  east  of  them,  and  on  the  vast 
numbers  of  prisoners  taken  at  these  wars,  whom  he 
believes  to  have  settled  on  the  lands  of  their  captors. 
Moreover,  while  land  was  more  abundant  than 
hands  to  till  it,  and  while  agriculture  was,  more  or 
less,  despised  as  an  occupation  by  warriors,  fugitive 
or  converted  foreigners  were  placed  by  nobles  and 
churchmen  on  their  domains.  There  is  clear  evi- 
dence of  this  having  taken  place  in  Thuringia-  It 
would  be  strange,  perhaps,  if  the  descendants  of  the 
captive  serfs  should  be  found  to  have  outstripped 
those  of  the  captors  and  now  to  outnumber  them. 
But  it  would  be  by  no  means  impossible.  The 
negro  population  constitutes  the  majority  in  most 
parts  of  the  West  Indies,  and  bids  fair  to  crowd  out 
the  other  races  there ;  yet  it  was  introduced  in  the 
same  way;  it  is  the  progeny  of  foreign  captives 
brought  in  to  till  the  soil  for  a  dominant  race  or 
caste. 

With  regard  to  colour,  the  question  of  its  change- 


Scotland,  with  General  Conclusions.        177 

ability  is  much  increased  in  difficulty  by  the  fact 
that  the  blond  complexion  has  throughout  all 
historical  time,  and  in  most  parts  of  Europe,  been 
the  one  most  admired,  while  the  red,  the  brown, 
and  the  black,  though  they  have  all  had  their  local 
seasons  of  favour  or  fashion,  have  on  the  whole 
been  the  less  thought  of  and  less  spoken  of,  especially 
by  the  poets,  from  Homer  downwards.  The 
inferences  to  be  drawn  from  the  mention  of  a  par- 
ticular complexion  are  not  always  clear.  If  it  were 
universal,  it  would  probably  never  be  mentioned. 
Even  if  very  common,  it  would  probably  not  be 
extolled,  one  would  think;  yet  the  Chinese  call 
themselves  "  the  black-haired  nation,"  and  the  Brah- 
mins would  marry  only  black-haired  women,  when 
other  colours  were  rare ;  and  Souvestre  says,  reddish 
hair  is  disliked  among  the  Bretons.  But  the  rule  is, 
perhaps,  that  the  uncommon  is  prized  as  well  as 
conspicuous. 

"  Beautiful  exceedingly. 
Like  a  ladye  from  a  far  countrie/' 

says  Coleridge  of  Christobel. 

Good  observers  have  said  that  all  the  Oriental 
Jews  are  red-haired,^  whereas  it  is  only  a  few  of 
them  who  are  so.  Some  will  tell  you  that  most 
Scotch  people  are  red-haired.  The  Chinese  say  we 
Britons  are  all  so.  The  French  in  general  think  the 
French  of  the  north  are  blond ;  we,  being  ourselves 
very  largely  fair,  think  the  northern  French  dark. 

^  Sir  Gardiner  Wilkinson,  for  example. 


178     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

Instances  of  this  kind  might  be  multiplied.  Again, 
a  favoured  colour  is  imitated.  Perhaps  the  Romans, 
when  describing  their  northern  neighbours,  ought 
more  often  to  have  said  "  rutilatae,"  "  raddled," 
instead  of  "  rutilae,"  "  red."  The  blond  locks  that 
the  great  Venetian  limners  painted,  were,  we  know, 
decolorised  by  art,  like  those  of  some  contemporary 
damsels.  On  the  whole,  then,  I  distrust  or  discount 
much  of  what  old  writers  said  about  the  fair  or  red 
hair  of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Europe.  Still, 
there  is  some  pretty  strong  evidence  of  change. 
Such  is  that  derivable  from  the  colour  statistics  of 
Virchow  and  G.  Mayr,  and  from  my  own,  as  to  the 
greater  proportion  of  dark  eyes  and  hair  in  cities. 

From  Virchow  we  have  the  proportion  borne  by 
brown-haired  children  to  the  blond-haired,  and  that 
of  brown-eyed  children  to  the  blue-eyed,  for  33 
cities  of  Germany,  with  the  surrounding  or  neigh- 
bouring rural  districts  in  every  case  available  for 
comparison.  Of  these  33,  in  one  the  citizens  are 
distinctly  the  lighter  in  both  hair  and  eyes.  This 
is  Metz,  and  the  phenomena  are  doubtless  due  to  the 
recent  addition  of  a  large  Germanic  and  compara- 
tively blond  element  to  the  population  of  the  city, 
while  the  rural  population  remains  unchanged. 
Seven  more  cities  show  no  considerable  excess  in 
either  way  over  the  country  people,  or  an  excess  in 
one  respect  and  a  deficiency  in  the  other.  These 
are  Wiesbaden  (which  has  none  of  the  unfavourable 
characteristics  of  a  city),  Ezberfeld,  Crefeld  and 
Barmen,  which  are  quite  modern  towns  of  mush- 
room growth,  where  no  new  influences  have  had 


Scotland,  with  General  Conclusions.        179 

time  to  work ;  Bradenburg,  Strasburg,  and  Halle,  a 
small  place.  In  the  remaining  25,  both  eyes  and 
hair  are  decidedly  darker  than  in  the  surrounding 
country.  Of  these,  in  5,  viz.,  Potsdam,  Erfurt,  Trier, 
Aachen,  and  Stuttgard,  the  hair  is  more  affected 
than  the  eyes;  in  two,  Liegnitz  and  Dusseldolf, 
both  are  equally  affected ;  and  in  the  remaining  18 
the  eyes  are  proportionally  more  darkened  than  the 
hair,  in  comparison  with  the  surrounding  rural 
population. 

The  difference  is  most  striking  in  the  north-east, 
in  Prussia  proper :  thus  in  Elbing  the  proportion  of 
brown  eyes  to  blue  is  in  the  city  74  to  100,  in  the 
surrounding  country  31  only,  a  difference  consider- 
ably more  than  double :  the  darkness  of  the  hair  is 
as  34  to  24.  In  the  west,  and  still  more  in  the  south, 
where  the  rural  population  is  darker,  the  phenom- 
enon is  less  conspicuous.  In  Frankfort-on-the-Main, 
a  very  ancient  city,  it  comes  out  strongly.  There 
the  figures  stand  thus : — 

To  100  Blond-haired.         To  100  Blue-Eyed. 
Brown-haired.  Brown-Eyed. 

Frankfort  City,  -    -    51  152 

Nassau  Province,    -    38  82 

In  Bavaria,  34  cities  and  towns,  in  7  out  of  8 
provinces,  are  separated  from  the  rural  districts: 
many  of  these  are  quite  small  places.  In  5  of  these 
provinces  the  town  scholars  have  more  often  dark 
hair  than  the  country  scholars;  in  Upper  Bavaria 
the  numbers  are  equal;  in  Lower  Bavaria  the 
citizen  scholars  come  out  fairest.  In  every  one  of 
the  7  provinces  the  citizen  scholars  have  a  larger 


180     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

proportion  of  dark  eyes.  Curiously,  they  have  not 
more  of  black  hair,  though  of  brown  hair  as  com- 
pared with  blond  the  excess  is  considerable.  The 
figures  are : — 

Blond  Hair.     Brown.     Black. 

Cities,        -        .        -        49  47         4 

Rural  districts,  -        -        55  40         5 

Light  Eyes.     Dark  Eyes. 

Cities,        -        ...     63  37 

Rural  districts,  -        -        -     67  33 

Here  in  Bavaria,  as  in  Germany  generally,  the 
difference  seems  to  disappear  where  the  rural  popu- 
lation is  darkest.  Lower  Bavaria  has  the  darkest 
people  in  all  Germany. 

Now  let  us  compare  our  own  country. 

I  have  three  sets  of  statistics  which  are  relevant : 
two  of  my  own  observation,  the  other  deduced  from 
the  military  notices  in  the  Hue  and  Cry  relating  to 
deserters,  whose  birthplaces  are  given.  The  same 
is  the  case  in  my  own  schedules  from  the  West  of 
England,  but  not  in  my  other  and  larger  report, 
which  is  therefore  of  much  less  value.  I  have 
framed  an  index  system  for  the  Hue  and  Cry 
statistics,  representing  greater  depth  of  colour  by 
an  increasing  figure,  and  these  are  the  results  for 
hair : — 

Index. 

London,  7'3  Middlesex,  Kent,  Surrey,  Essex,       -        -  3*2 

Brighton,  8*  Sussex,       -------  3- 

Bristol,  14*  Somerset  and  Gloucestershire,  -        -        -  8*7 

Birmingham,  10*5  Warwickshire,  Worcestershire,  Staffordshire,  7* 

Newcastle,         8"5  Northumberland,       -----  4-7 

Edinburgh,        7'4  Lothians  (minus),       -----  4-3 

Glasgow,  13-7  All  Scotland,      ------  3-1 


Scotland,  with  General  Conclusions.        181 

There  is  no  exception  here;  but  the  eyes,  which 
are  not  very  carefully  noted,  seem  to  be  much  the 
same  in  town  and  country.  In  my  own  statistics 
for  Great  Britain,  I  am  able  in  about  25  instances  to 
separate  town  and  country :  in  all  these  the  hair  of 
the  inhabitants  of  cities  was  the  darker,  except  (in 
England)  in  Shrewsbury,  Hereford,  Gloucester  and 
Truro  (all,  you  will  observe,  situated  on  the  Welsh 
border  or  in  Cornwall,  where  the  general  population 
is  dark-haired),  and  in  Scotland,  in  Aberdeen  and 
Arbroath.  I  have  not  worked  out  the  figures  for 
the  eyes ;  but  in  my  schedule  of  natives  of  the  West 
of  England  I  have  done  so,  with  the  result  that  in 
the  larger  towns  dark  eyes  prevail.  I  have  no  doubt 
that  this  phenomenon,  the  greater  darkness  of  both 
hair  and  eyes  in  citizens  than  in  country-folk,  is 
largely  due  to  the  perpetual  immigration  of  dark- 
complexioned  foreigners.  In  our  own  case,  these  are 
Frenchmen,  Italians,  converted  Jews  (who  melt 
away  into  the  general  population),  and  Welshmen, 
and  so-called  Black  Kelts,  from  the  remote  west  of 
these  islands.  In  the  case  of  Germany,  they  come 
from  France,  from  Italy,  from  the  same  Jewish 
source,  and  from  Bohemia  and  neighbouring  parts. 
But  I  doubt  whether  this,  though  a  good  explana- 
tion so  far  as  it  goes,  is  a  sufficient  one ;  and  I  am 
strongly  disposed  to  see  in  the  matter  a  case  of 
natural  selection,  the  blond  children  being,  in  my 
opinion,  already  expressed,  often  more  difficult 
to  rear  amid  the  many  unfavourable  influences 
that  accompany  city  life,  while  the  blond  adults, 
being   of   a    more  restless  and   adventurous  tem- 


182     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

perament,  are  more  disposed    to   wander   and    to 
emigrate. 

Since  the  above  was  written,  Dr.  Shrubsall  has 
proved  that  blond  children  in  towns  suffer  more 
from  rheumatism  and  throat  affections  than  those 
of  dark  complexion,  whose  special  weak  points  are 
not  so  liable  to  develop  until  comparatively  late  in 
life,  and  who,  therefore,  have  a  better  chance  of 
surviving  to  reproduce  their  species. 

In  fine,  we  have  fairly  satisfactory  proof  that 
under  ordinary  circumstances  the  physical  charac- 
teristics of  well-defined  races  of  men,  such  as  form, 
colour,  and  even  size,  are  absolutely  permanent;  and 
that  when  we  wish  to  find  an  explanation  of  such 
characteristics  occurring  in  any  particular  locality, 
we  should  first  "  cher-cher  la  race."  We  must  allow, 
however,  that  under  a  change  of  external  circum- 
stances natural  selection  may  exert  its  influence  to 
alter  they  type,  and  that  conjugal,  and  what  may  be 
called  social  selection  may  also  apparently  modify 
it.  Thirdly,  the  direct  influences  of  external 
agencies,  except  upon  the  individual,  and  for  his 
life  only,  is  as  yet  unproven,  though  not  by  any 
means  absolutely  disproved. 

III. 

To  what  races  or  types,  then,  is  the  future  to 
belong? 

The  northern  dolichos  at  present  multiply  freely, 
and  are  actively  engaged  in  colonizing  the  North 
American  and  Australian  Continents,  in  which 
their  type  is  now  dominant.    Whether  it  will  long 


Scotland,  with  General  Conclusions.        183 

continue  to  be  so,  may  be  doubted.  There  is  in  the 
colonists  plenty  of  size,  of  vigour,  of  beauty,  and  of 
intellectual  power;  nevertheless,  there  are  signs 
which  lead  some  to  doubt  whether  all  these  will  be 
permanent.  The  birth-rate  tends  to  decrease  among 
the  pure  Anglo-Americans,  while  the  French-Can- 
adians, strongly  crossed  with  native  Indian  blood, 
are  multiplying  with  alarming  rapidity;  and  the 
American  military  statistics  seem,  prima  facie,  to 
indicate  that  the  climate  is  less  suitable  to  the  blond 
than  to  the  brunette. 

And  in  Europe  the  brachykephals,  and,  what  is 
nearly  the  same  thing  for  us,  the  brunettes,  have 
been  shown  to  be  gaining  ground,  in  the  west  only 
insensibly,  as  it  were  by  infection,  but  in  the  east, 
among  the  Slavs,  with  open  certainty.  Topinard, 
no  admirer  of  the  brachykephalic  type,  says  in  his 
latest  work  {U Homme  dans  la  Nature)  that  the  day 
will  come  when  it  will  be  universal.  The  Medi- 
terranean race  has  had  its  turn ;  it  exhausted  its 
energies  long  ago  in  the  conquest  of  South  America 
and  "the  Indies,"  and  is  now  comparatively  stag- 
nant ;  but  there  are  some  signs,  I  think,  of  its  future 
revival.  But,  of  the  increase  of  the  Jews,  at  least, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  whatever.  There  are  no  data 
to  shew  us  whether  of  the  two  curiously  discrimin- 
ated Jewish  types  is  gaining  on  the  other;  but  I 
strongly  suspect  that  it  is  the  brachykephalic. 
However  that  may  be,  the  Jews  grow  not  only  in 
number,  living  longer  and  dying  less  readily  than 
the  Gentiles  among  whom  they  dwell,  but  they  are 
gradually  attracting  to  themselves  the  whole  move- 


184     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

able  wealth  of  the  earth ;  and  wealth  is  power,  and 
the  world  must  move  or  halt  as  wealth  bids  it.  It 
would  be  strange  if,  in  spite  of  the  community  of 
religion  and  traditions  and  usages,  there  were  not 
some  moral  or  intellectual  difference  connected 
with  the  physical  one  between  these  two  sections 
of  the  Hebrews.  And  I  believe  there  is.  The 
Sephardim,  who  have  usually  the  rather  small  oval 
true  Semitic  type  of  head,  are  said  to  be  some- 
what looked  up  to  by  the  Ashkenazim,  who  are 
mostly  of  the  broad-headed  type.  And  whatever 
may  be  the  case  at  the  present  time,  in  past 
times  it  has  been  individuals  from  among  the 
Sephardim  who  have  distinguished  themselves 
from  the  common  herd  of  their  fellow-believers, 
and  that  in  ways  more  noble  than  that  of  money- 
making. 

And  so  again  with  the  two  great  races  of  north- 
ern and  central  Europe.  De  CandoUe  and  De 
Lapouge  will  tell  us  that  of  men  of  genius,  of 
originality,  men  who  have  made  their  mark  in 
history,  or  literature,  or  science,  and  whose  memory 
remains  green  among  us,  the  majority  have  been 
born  among  the  long-headed  blonds,  the  Aryans,  as 
most  people  incorrectly  call  them. 

If  we  dot  the  map  of  Europe  wherever  a  great 
man  has  been  born,  we  shall  find,  say  they,  that  the 
dots  will  cluster  about  an  axis  drawn  from  Edinburgh 
(mark  that,  ye  Aberdonians,  they  do  not  say  "from 
Aberdeen  ") — from  Edinburgh  to  Switzerland.  A 
subordinate  line  might  be  drawn,  crossing  the  first, 
from    Normandy   to    the    Baltic;    and    there   will 


Scotland,  with  General  Conclusions.        185 

remain  two  or  three  independent  blotches  about  the 
Garonne,  the  Rhone,  and  Upper  Italy. 

It  is  evident  therefore,  in  spite  of  Schaffhausen,^ 
that  there  is  virtue  in  the  long-headed  stock,  the 
stock  which,  as  the  Tanagra  figures  show  us,  pre- 
dominated in  the  old  Greeks.  But  its  partizans  go 
further,  and  say  that  men  of  genius  not  only  arise 
among  them,  but  are  themselves,  in  majority,  con- 
stituted like  the  stock  amidst  which  they  arise. 
And  I  incline  to  think  they  are  right. 

Dr.  Venn  has  shewn,  in  the  Anthropological 
Transactions,  that  at  Cambridge  the  first-class  men 
have  proportionally  longer  as  well  as  more  capacious 
heads  than  the  rest  of  the  students.  In  our  own 
islands,  where  the  breadth  of  head  varies  locally  but 
little,  and  its  general  form  more  decidedly,  while 
the  complexion  varies  very  considerably,  it  is  safe 
to  say  that  men  of  distinction  are  in  large  proportion 
natives  of  the  more  blond  areas.  The  east,  north 
and  south,  surpass  in  this  respect  the  centre  and 
west.  Conan  Doyle,  in  a  rather  superficial  exam- 
ination, found  that  after  Edinburgh  and  some  other 
parts  of  Scotland  not  well  defined,  Hampshire  and 
Suffolk,  two  somewhat  despised  Anglo-Saxon  dis- 
tricts,^ headed  the  list.  And  I  may  perhaps  be 
allowed  to  quote  myself  on  the  same  topic — "In 
opposition  to  the  current  opinion,  it  would  seem 
that  the  Welsh  rise  most  in  commerce,  the  Scotch 


1  This  illustrious  anthropologist,  so  often  referred  to  in  these  lectures, 
has  died  since  they  were  delivered. 

'^ "  Hampshire  hogs,"  and  "  Silly  Suffolk  "  are  proverbial. 
13 


186     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

coming  after  them,  and  the  Irish  nowhere.  The 
people  of  Welsh  descent  and  name  hold  their  own 
fairly  in  science :  the  Scotch  do  more,  the  Irish  less 
— (I  am  taking  the  English  as  the  standard).  But 
when  one  looks  to  the  attainment  of  military  or 
political  distinction,  the  case  is  altered.  Here  the 
Scotchmen,  and  especially  the  Highlanders,  bear 
away  the  palm ;  the  Irish  retrieve  their  position, 
and  the  Welsh  are  little  heard  of."  If  I  were  to 
hazard  a  guess,  a  thing  I  am  not  very  fond  of  doing, 
I  would  say  that  among  the  longheads  it  is  the 
wider,  among  the  broadheads  the  longer,  that  more 
often  rise  to  distinction.  In  each  case  the  skull, 
while  retaining  its  original  general  pattern,  acquires 
an  additional  development  in  the  direction  in  which 
it  is  most  deficient.  You  may  have  two  heads  which 
give  you  about  the  same  index  in  brutal  figures, 
but  in  which  the  mode  of  development  and  the 
details  of  form  are  quite  different.  Thus,  I  am 
inclined  to  look  on  the  old  Roman  head  as  a  high 
type  of  longhead,  widened  in  the  temporal  region. 
If  you  want  to  have  a  disputed  question  put 
trenchantly,  clearly,  logically,  and  carried  out  to 
the  bitter  end,  you  must  go  to  France  to  have  it 
done;  and  in  this  particular  case  you  may  go  to 
Obedenare  to  champion  the  broad,  and  to  De 
Lapouge  and  De  Candolle  to  sing  the  praise  of  the 
longhead.  One  would  suppose,  in  listening  to 
them,  that  the  children  of  light  were  not  more 
sharply  discriminated  from  the  children  of  darkness; 
only  as  to  which  is  which  they  differ. 


Scotland,  with  General  Conclusions.        187 

On  the  one  hand,  we  are  told  that  the  long- 
suffering  race,  which  desired  to  harm  nobody,  to 
rule  over  and  tryannize  over  nobody,  which  asked 
only  to  be  allowed  to  remain  at  peace  in  the  land  of 
its  birth,  and  to  labour  and  produce  without  inter- 
ference from  the  brigands,  the  restless  warriors  and 
conquerors  of  the  other  race,  but  which  hitherto 
has  seldom  had  this  modest  privilege,  now  at  last, 
in  these  latter  days,  begins  to  see  a  chance  of  its 
virtuous  aspirations  being  realised.  No  longer  will 
its  youth,  in  the  days  to  come,  be  torn  from  their 
homes  and  enrolled  in  armies  to  satisfy  the  greed 
for  land  and  dominion  of  the  long-headed  barbar- 
ians; their  undeniable  valour  will  be  exercised  only 
in  defence  of  their  homes,  and  their  patient  industry 
and  domestic  affection,  will  be  crowned  with  peace 
and  plenty,  with  equality  and  fraternity. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  are  told  that  in  common 
schools  in  France,  the  long-headed  children  surpass 
the  broad-headed  ones;  that  the  world  owes  far 
more  to  the  Englishman,  the  Scotchman,  and  the 
Norman,  than  to  the  Kelt,  the  Rhgetian,  the  Rouman 
or  the  Slav;  and  that  it  would  simply  stagnate  and 
putrefy  were  the  northern  long-headed  race  to  be 
nipped  and  checked  in  its  development,  for  the 
source  of  originality,  of  genius,  of  inventiveness,  of 
the  spirit  of  travel  and  of  adventure,  would  be  cut 
off.  "  Better  fifty  years  of  Europe,"  they  say  in 
effect,  "than  a  cycle  of  Cathay." 

These  ideas  are  extreme,  of  course.  No  people 
in  homogeneous,  or  has  an  absolute  monopoly  of 


188     The  Anthropological  History  of  Europe. 

any  particular  endowment.  The  Alpine  race  are 
not  always  pacific  or  industrious;  their  ancestors 
apparently  treated  the  primitive  Iberians  of  France 
as  badly  as  we  treat  the  native  Australians,  and 
their  stone  arrows  have  been  found  sticking  in  the 
ribs  of  those  unfortunate  longheads.  "  Breton " 
(and  most  of  the  Bretons  are  of  this  race)  was  about 
the  14th  century  synonymous  with  "  swashbuckler," 
and  the  Croats  have  not  the  reputation  of  law- 
abiding  harmlessness.  Still,  certain  qualities  do 
adhere  to  certain  races,  and  seem  to  be  due  greatly 
to  their  histories,  traditions,  and  environments, 
the  influence  of  their  great  writers,  and  so  forth, 
but  partly  also  to  their  physical  conformation 
and  hereditary  constitution  of  brain.  Scott  has 
done  something,  no  doubt,  towards  moulding  the 
modern  Scottish  character;  but  then,  he  was  him- 
self the  product  of  the  Scottish  border,  and  could 
not  have  been  born  anywhere  else. 

It  is  an  invidious  thing  to  draw  national  char- 
acters, and  to  point  out  their  defects.  But  how 
seldom  do  the  English  produce  a  great  orator,  or 
the  Irish  a  great  engineer,  or  the  Scotch  a  great  actor, 
or  the  Welsh,  though  undeniably  brave,  a  great 
soldier.  The  Spaniards  have  always  been  cruel,  the 
French  boastful,  the  Italians  crafty  and  cunning,  the 
English  lovers  of  fair  play,  respecters  of  wealth, 
sufferers  from  "  mauvaise  haute/)'  These  points  come 
out  repeatedly  in  history.  My  audience  laughed 
when  they  heard  that  the  Little-Russians  were  "fond 
of  greasy  feeding  and  of  music ; "  but  we  may  look 
nearer  home,  and  say  the  same  of  the  Yorkshire 


Scotland,  with  General  Conclusions.        189 

men.  The  love  and  skill  for  music  go  back  in  them 
at  least  700  years;  of  the  antiquity  of  the  other 
characteristic  I  am  not  so  sure;  perhaps  it  is  as  old 
as  the  time  of  the  "  felon  sow,"  when  :— 

"  Ralph  of  Rokeby  with  good  will 
The  friars  of  Rokeby  gave  her  till. 
Full  well  to  gar  them  fare." 

Or  as  that  still  more  remote  period  when  roast  pork 
loomed  so  largely  among  the  idle  joys  of  the 
Vikings'  Valhalla. 

Finally,  there  are  assuredly  diversities  of  gifts 
pertaining  to  diverse  breeds  of  men ;  and  unless  we 
are  all  reduced  to  the  dull  dead  level  of  socialism, 
and  perhaps  even  in  that  case,  for  the  sake  of  relief, 
we  shall  continue  to  stand  in  need  of  all  these  gifts. 
Let  us  hope,  then,  that  blue  eyes,  as  well  as  brown 
eyes,  will  continue  to  beam  on  our  descendants,  and 
that  heads  will  never  come  to  be  framed  all  upon 
one  and  the  same  pattern. 


APPENDIX. 


DESCRIPTION  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Curves  of  Stature. 

Bertillon  pere  discovered  that  the  curve  of  stature 
of  the  conscripts  of  the  department  of  the  Doubs 
was  bicipital,  one  of  its  equal  peaks  being  at  164 
centimeters  and  the  other  about  169'5.  He  attribu- 
ted these  facts  to  the  presence  of  two  incompletely 
amalgamated  races,  the  Keltic  and  the  Burgundian, 
the  latter  being  the  taller.  On  this  hypothesis  the 
Burgundians  ought  not,  one  would  think,  to  have 
produced  a  peak  in  the  curve  equal  to  that  due  to 
the  Kelts ;  for  we  know  that  they  were  not  nearly 
so  numerous  (they  took  only  one-third  of  the  land 
from  the  natives).  One  may,  however,  suppose  them 
reinforced  in  their  influence  on  the  stature  by  other 
tall  tribes  or  immigrants,  Germanic  or  Belgic.  It 
was  soon  discovered  that  a  somewhat  similar  bi- 
cipital curve  occurred  in  the  conscription  lists  of 
most  of  the  north-eastern  departments  of  France, 
all  or  almost  all  of  which  are  inhabited  by  a  com- 
paratively tall  breed  of  men. 

A  few  years  later,  however,  Ridolfo  Livi  demon- 
strated that  the  bicipital  form  of  the  curve  in  these 
cases  was  due  to  an  arithmetical  error,  which 
naturally  arose  in  the  translation  of  Paris  inches 
into  centimeters,  and  to  the  natural,  but  unconscious, 
bias  of  observers  and  measurers  for  round  numbers. 


Appendix.  191 

The  presence  of  two  races  of  differing  stature, 
and  not  thoroughly  amalgamated,  does,  however, 
tend  to  produce  a  broader,  lower,  and  more  extensive 
curve.  Of  this  I  have  given  some  examples.  In  the 
Doubs  and  Ardennes  the  taller  race-element  (Gal- 
atic,  Frank,  or  Burgundian)  is  tolerably  strong,  and 
pushes  out  the  curve  into  a  conspicuous  shoulder, 
in  the  Marne  this  is  not  quite  so  noticeable :  in 
France  generally,  including  all  the  south  and 
west,  still  less  so ;  and  in  the  Correze,  a  poor,  hilly, 
moorland  district,  where  the  native  short-statured 
brachykephal  has  been  very  little  disturbed,  it  is 
not  recognizable. 


Curves  of  Cranial  or  Kephalic  Index. 

In  these  the  influence  of  race  or  of  hereditary 
type,  is  more  distinct  and  undeniable  than  in  those 
of  stature,  the  latter  being  more  liable  to  disturbing 
influences.  But  even  in  dealing  with  heads  and 
skulls  the  cautions  of  Livi  must  be  borne  in  mind, 
and  something  must  be  allowed  for  arithmetical 
vagaries,  and,  where  the  numbers  dealt  with  are  not 
great,  for  pure  chance.  One  hundred  is  a  number 
whence  one  may  generally  get  a  probably  correct 
impression.  Thus  in  Ranke's  Franconian  series  one 
may  be  pretty  confident  that  the  lines  indicate  a 
Germanic  dolicho  and  a  Slavonic,  Keltic  or  other 
brachykephalic  element,  and  that  the  former  as  well 
as  the  latter  is  present  in  considerable  force ;  but  a 
larger  number  of  examples  is  much  to  be  desired. 
The  two  peaks  among  my  75  Munstermen  are 
probably  merely  accidental.  The  second  peak  in 
Ranke's  Chammiinster  men  (at  85,  86)  may  or  may 
not  be  significant.  The  long  series  of  Swiss  skulls 
which  I  have  taken  from  KoUmann  unites  several 
races   from    the    prehistoric    ones   down.     In   the 


192  Appendix. 

Swedish  diagram,  based  on  sufficiently  large  num- 
bers, Dalarne  (Dalecarlia)  yields  an  almost  absol- 
utely symmetrical  curve,  indicating  a  pure  Nordic 
or  Suiogothic  race,  but  Lappland  bulges  to  the 
broader  side,  owing  to  the  presence  of  round-headed 
Lapps. 

In  the  purely  British  diagram  the  curves  of 
Devon  and  Wilts  differ  considerably.  Wiltshire  is 
notable  for  the  complete  or  nearly  complete  absence 
of  true  brachykephals.  It  has  a  prolongation  on  the 
dolicho  side  rising  to  a  peak  at  72,  which  may 
perhaps  be  due  to  descendants  and  representatives 
of  the  denizens  of  our  long  barrows.  For  the  Wilt- 
shire population  seem  to  be  almost  wholly  Saxon  or 
Iberian,  with  very  little  sign  of  French  or  Welsh 
invasion.  Its  average  index  is  about  76"3.  That  of 
Devon  is  about  7816;  it  is  frankly  mesokephalic, 
and  may  represent  a  population  largely  Brythonic. 
The  100  men  of  intellectual  superiority  give  me  a 
lower  average  (77'87),  mesokephalic,  but  near  the 
confines  of  dolichokephaly.  Though  generally 
(with  many  exceptions  it  is  true),  of  larger  size,  in 
kephalic  index  they  do  not  differ  notably  from  the 
races  to  which  they  belong.  The  main  body  of 
the  scheme  represents  the  English  and  the  Scotch 
generally:  the  secondary  peak  to  the  right  may 
perhaps  be  due  to  the  Norman,  Huguenot  and 
Welsh  elements,  not  completely  assimilated. 


THE   END. 


Beddoe,  John 
^^^  The  antliropological 

B4.       history  of  Europe 


GN 
57 

1912 


PLEASE  DO  NOT  REMOVE 
CARDS  OR  SLIPS  FROM  THIS  POCKET 

UNIVERSITY  OF  TORONTO  LIBRARY